Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn
by texaswookie
Summary: The balance has shifted and heroes need more power to answer the change. The Gods of Old have awoken and have begun to choose their Champions for the coming war.
1. Captain Britian

**Captain Britain**

For those of you who don't Know Captain Britain is a Marvel Comics character and Hp and all of his buddies belong to Rowling.

* * *

Harry nodded as he listened to the spirit of Dumbledore; he finally understood what he had to do now. He was about to turn around and head back to the fight when a blast of fog came hurtling down toward them, the two figures were blinded for a moment, the mist began to thin out and the scene had changed with the mist he and the headmaster were no longer standing on the train platform but were now back in the clearing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest though a ring of stones now surrounded them. Looking toward Dumbledore Harry noted that the former headmaster appeared to be just as confused as he was about what was happening.

"Well done Harry Potter," a voice boomed out at him. The pair turned and found themselves facing a pair of giant ghostly figures that were disturbingly familiar. Harry studied them for a moment before realizing that his guess was probably correct he had seen both of them as chocolate cards enough to know who he was facing. "Merlin and Ravenclaw?" He questioned, unsure what it was that was going on now.

The man chuckled at that, "It is actually Merlyn," he corrected the young wizard, "and this is my daughter Roma Guardian of the Omniverse." The tall regal woman nodded to the boy. "Now as to why we are here," Merlyn said with an anticipatory glint in his eyes. "I have an offer to give you boy. Even with your ability to conquer death for the most part now that you have become the Master of the Hollows, you still lack the knowledge and skill in how to battle with your Dark Lord."

Harry nodded in agreement all of the most powerful hexes, jinxes, and curses he knew were things that Voldemort could cast with a thought and a flick of his wrist. "What are you offering?" The wizard questioned warily.

"Become this world's Captain Britain," Roma finally said, "be the magical defender of this realm with the power that come s from this you will have the ability to challenge this wizard in combat."

"And how long is Harry going to be required to be in your service?" Dumbledore questioned, as he eyed the two. "Harry may not wish to become involved in fight after fight."

"True that is why it is his choice," Merlyn said in agreement, "to save the world from Tom Riddle and those like him or to try and challenge Voldermort as he is should he win he without our aide he will be free from fate and prophecy should he accept our help though he will become a true warrior. He must be the one decide what is best not only for himself though but for his world. Now be silent shade and let the young one decide what path his course is to take on his own without either of us interfering." Merlyn waved his hand and the headmaster began mouthing words uselessly. The two ancient beings turned away from the spirit without concern and waited for the boy to make his choice.

Harry sighed as he looked first to Dumbledore then to the pair of unknowns, his mind thought of all of those that he would need to protect Hermione, Ron, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, the rest of the Weasley brothers, the remants of his Quidditch team, Hagrid, McGonagall, Flitwick, Pompfrey, Sprout, Neville, Luna, Kingsley, the Dursley's, the Malfoy's and all of the rest of the people that Voldemort threatened. Merlyn was right about the fact that even with his mastery over death he had no training and would never beat Voldermort as he was. Hadn't he proved just that when the Gryffindor team outplayed the Slytherian team in his second year? Despite the Malfoy money having paid for the very best brooms they had won because they were better trained team. No, skill and ability were just as important if not more so than the raw power that a person could use.

He looked over at Dumbledore, "Sorry Professor, he said with a sad smile. Dumbledore looked sadly at the boy and nodded taking a step back from the boy as he approached the two powerful beings. Harry swallowed before looking at the pair. "I accept," he told them.

"Very well then, choose now the Sword of Might or the Amulet of Right." Merlyn said as two golden items appeared before Harry on one side was a sword with a golden hilt and seemed to have more power in it than even the Sword of Gryffindor had on the other side was a golden necklace with rubies in it.

"I need to win this fight not drag it out with more obscure magic's," Harry said as he gripped the sword.

"So be it," Roma said as the Amulet disappeared in a flash and the sword glowed for a moment the energies bathing Harry in light when the light faded. Harry looked down and saw that he was now broader and more muscular all over he was wearing a bright red body hugging outfit with a Golden Lion splashed across the chest, he wore black boots that came up to his knees, a mask that covered his face the top half red while the bottom half was blue it was opened at the top to let his hair free, in his hand he carried a staff like golden weapon. "Nice," Harry said as he examined himself.

"And what shall we call this defender?" Merlyn asked his daughter who was studying the newest member to her soldiers.

"I have no name that need be filled;" the woman told her father, "let him choose his own name."

"Agreed, choose what the Captain Britain Corps shall call you now Harry Potter, Lion Heart Knight of Avalon."

"Um how about Gryffindor?" Harry asked them uncertainly, naming things was not exactly something he was good at that was more the twins thing than his."

Merlyn shook his head at the lack of imagination the newest member had when coming up with a name. He knew the boy had more potential, he had seen him use it in combat enough. "As you wish it, now go Gryffindor, and do battle with those that threaten the realm you know your way away from this realm. Shade now you may speak."

Dumbledore whistled a few notes of a jaunty kids tune out and nodded to the two before turning to the young man he had trained. "Well, I must say Harry that this is a bit of a surprise but I suppose that it was meant to be."

"Maybe professor," Harry replied uncomfortably as he slid the staff onto his back in a blue harness. "I know you disagreed with this," he said waving to himself, "but I think it had to be done sir."

"Very well Harry what's done is done, now go and do your duty now," the headmaster told his favorite student the two hugged briefly and then Harry disappeared from the realm of the dead and reappeared with Mrs. Malfoy standing over him with a cocky Voldemort in the background giving off all sorts of orders to the Death Eaters. He felt his giant friend carry him away and listened to Hogwarts as all of its defenders cried out to see their champion being carried by the games keeper. Harry waited though, he knew he just had to wait and then he would know when to strike he watched as Neville chopped Nagini down and then he was forgotten while the battle raged on.

Harry Potter stood up and walked over to where the dead body of Nagini lay. He looked over the body dispassionately before standing up, 'it was time' he thought as he summoned the new power in him. He blinked and he was once again clad in the costume of Gryffindor, of the Captain Britain Corps. He drew the staff weapon from his back and then turned toward the castle the staff glowed for a moment and then he leaped into the air and found himself hovering in the air. Grinning Gryffindor flew into one of the tower windows. He then began walking down the stairs. His first encounter was with three Death Eaters who all fired reducto curses at him. He drew his staff and watched with a grin as the deadly bright red beams bounced off the energy shield he was making. The group of Death Eaters moved to the side as the figure strode forward, one tried a killing curse and Gryffindor blocked the spell with a blast of energy. Gryffindor sped forward faster than any of the Death Eaters could follow and grabbed the one who had fired at him by the throat and effortlessly lifted him over his head with one hand. "Where is Voldemort?" The masked figure growled out angrily.

"The Dark Lord is in the Great Hall," the Death Eater gasped out clawing at the arm that held him.

"Good," Gryffindor then tossed the figure at his companions knocking them all down the stairs. Gryffindor held his weapon in a tight grip at his side as he began to stalk down the stairs heading toward the double doors to the Great Hall as he came upon the doors he could hear the sound of spell fire from the other side he gripped the staff tightly in both hands and slammed it into the crack where the two giant doors met. The doors flew from their hinges and skittered across the floor knocking several duelers from both sides down. Everyone stopped to stare at the newcomer wondering who they were going to fight for.

"Voldemort," the new arrival said.

The scaled face man turned away from the group of magic users that he had been battling to observe this new opponent, he was tall and strong looking the weapon he carried seemed to thrum with hidden power. "Who are you?" The dark lord questioned.

"I am to be your judgment," the masked man said coldly, "as an enemy to the rightful rulers of magical Britain I have been commanded to finish you off."

Voldemort threw his head back and laughed at the fool in front of him. "You may have more power and experience than the Potter brat, but you will still fall down before me like he did."

"I doubt it Voldemort," the figure said, "come on show me what you have got. He commanded gesturing the wizard toward him.

"Very well." Voldemort growled as he fired a killing curse toward the newest wannabe hero of the people . The figure almost casually jumped to the side firing an energy bolt out of the staff he carried. The Dark Lord raised a shield that blocked the unknown spell and stumbled back as the destructive force pushed him back. The wizard glared as the figure then grabbed one of the house table benches in one arm and threw it at the wizard who blasted it away only to be forced to erect a shield as plates that had been sitting on the table were flung like discs at him.

Voldemort glared from behind the shield he had created, "you are wasting both of our time, pure physical power is not going to be enough to defeat me, particularly not while I have the Death Stick," he gloated raising the white wand in the air triumphantly.

"You think that thing is really going to help you?" The red clad figure questioned as he held his staff up and ready.

"Yes I do," the wizard said as he waved his wand and all of the broken plates rose into the air and formed into a single giant plate Voldermort then began spinning the disk and flung it toward his opponent laughing as the heavy disk slammed into the torso of the figure sending him and the plate crashing into the wall.

"Is there no one else that can truly challenge Voldemort!" The wizard questioned, as he raised his wand and sent a powerful slicing curse that caught some unknown wizard in the arm.

"You're not done with me yet Voldemort," the figure growled as it pushed the broken pieces of the plate off of him. The figure limped slightly as it strode forward preparing to go again. All of those watching couldn't believe what they were seeing the man's bright red costume was nearly destroyed after that last hit his pants had large slashes in the legs and the shirt was nearly completely gone leaving him mainly with just his sleeves and gloves yet not only did he continue coming he seemed like he was barely hurt.

"Who are you?" The wizard hissed in annoyance.

"Me? You can call me Gryffindor." The figure said as he set himself up to continue the fight.

The wizard glared and tried to force his way into the mind of the figure before him yet was held back somehow. He could catch some of the surface thoughts that were there but not enough to know anything of his opponent. The thoughts were familiar though, in fact they were very close to the way that Potter's had worked after all of the years he easily noticed the similarity of the thought patterns. "So, the heir of Gryffindor dares to show himself to me after all this time." Voldemort mocked the fighter.

"Didn't say I was the heir of Gryffindor, just that you can call me Gryffindor." The figures quipped before dropping to the ground beneath a purple flame curse Voldemort sent his way. While he was on the ground he pointed the staff at the wizard and fired an energy beam. Voldemort waved his hand and discarded shield floated between him and the beam.

Snarling the wizard then sent a crucio out at his opponent and grinned as it connected. The sound of the pain filled cries were music to his ears. "What's the matter, nothing left to say?" The wizard sneered as he let the curse go for a moment as he watched the figure try and climb back to his feet. Voldemort summoned the golden staff like weapon to him and examined it for a moment before turning back to the figure firing another crutacias. "Did you truly think that you could merely walk in here and defeat me? I who have bested Dumbledore, and Potter? Beat me, the one who has taken more steps to keep myself away from death than anyone else?" He let the spell up to see how the so called hero would react.

"That was the plan," the figure admitted through pain filled gasps as he slowly forced himself back up onto his feet.

Voldermort stared in surprise at the figure returning to his feet few beings could rise again after being hit twice by that spell in a matter of moments. "Most impressive, had you served me you would have gone far, but you made your choice and now you shall suffer for it." He raised his wand again and fired a killing curse at the figure.

Groaning Gryffindor rolled out of the way of the blast and stumbled back to his feet. "Gryffindor catch!" A voice called out, turning the hero fumbled for the tossed weapon looking dumbly at the blonde wizard with various wounds on him and down at the sword of Gryffindor. Pulling himself up the figure saw the Dark Lord waiting for him to come at him. Shrugging the figure charged holding the sword up high.

Voldemort laughed as he watched him come at him and fired a reducto spell at his attacker. Gryffindor moved with a speed none would have believed possible as he blocked the spell sending it upward and into the ceiling causing some rubble to fall. Gryffindor blocked two more spells before he fired a fire whip at his enemy. Gryffindor raised the sword and strained as the whip wrapped around the broadsword. The two were in a struggle of will and strength as neither wanted to give up their hold on the ancient blade.

"Expellermius!" Hermione Granger cried hitting the snake skinned wizard the dark Lord stumbled, but didn't lose his grip on the elder wand but he did lose the golden staff.

"You'll regret that little mudblood." Voldermort promised her.

Hermione ignored the threat as she caught the weapon and tossed it toward Gryffindor who snagged the weapon out of the air one handed. "Thanks Mione," the figure mumbled causing the bushy haired witch's eyes to widen in recognition. Gryffindor then brought his staff down on the flame whip causing a small flash of light that destroyed the whip.

Voldemort growled as he was once again countered he couldn't understand it as the master of the Death Stick victory should have been his yet still this unknown figure managed to stand up to him. He sent a series of spells at this Gryffindor and muttered angrily as he watched as the hero became a small tornado casually knocking the spells skyward.

"Give up you can't win," Gryffindor said when he was only ten feet away from Voldemort, "if you continue like this you'll bring Hogwarts down as well."

"So be it, if I cannot have Hogwarts then none shall!" The wizard informed the rival, he then drew his elm and phoenix feather wand and aimed both of the wands at Gryffindor two large balls of green energy glowed from the tips of the wands. "Avada Kedavra!" He shouted, as he let two powerful bursts of magic the size of quaffles fly toward the battered figure.

Shaking his head Gryffindor crossed the sword and golden staff stopping the two deadly beams from hitting him, some of the energy made its way around the two weapons and he could feel the power of the spells burning away the remnants of his uniform gloves, and his mask.

Voldemort finally let up and stopped and stared in disbelief at what he saw, there standing there in a weakened state was his foe. Weak, beaten and battered, but he was impossibly still standing. "Impossible," he muttered.

"Really? Cause now I'm thinking it's my turn Voldemort." Gryffindor returned at him. He had lowered the weapons so that they now rested at either side as he gathered his energy.

"Potter," Voldemort snarled softly as he recognized the features that were visible. The bottom half of the mask was mostly gone but only the top of one side had completely burned away showing a green eye that was the same pale green as the two spells that he had just used.

"Got it in one Voldemort," Gryffindor nodded, "but now it's my turn." Raising the weapons back up he re-crossed them and Voldemort backed away as he saw the weapons begin shine with unknown power the staff sparkled as if reflecting all light while the blade and gems of the sword of Gryffindor began to glow. The wizard fearfully raised a shield with the both of the wands. "Using my own wand like that Voldemort?" Gryffindor mocked then threw both weapons at the wizard. Everyone watched as the staff went through first slicing through the twin shields knocking the elm wand away it was followed by the sword of Gryffindor which sliced through Voldemort's forearm and then continued on striking the wizard in the chest.

The wizard gasped as he sank to the floor the wound while serious was one that he would be able to shake off if he had long enough. He looked up as he watched Potter stand over him drawing the mighty blade out of his chest and arm. "Goodbye Voldemort," the figure said as he sliced the head of the monster off. He watched silently as the body fell, it caught fire as it destroyed itself till nothing but ashes were left of it. He picked up the Elder wand glanced at it and sighed before sliding into a slot that had appeared in the staff, he then slowly and painfully picked the sword and staff up which felt like giant weights before rising. He surveyed the crowd and sighed; Death Eaters, students, Order Members, and regular witches and wizards were all over the place. He raised the weapons to chest height and pointed them in either direction. "Drop them." He ordered coldly. The Death Eaters fearfully dropped their wands, not wanting to deal with the being that had defeated their master. He watched as the wizards and witches gathered the fallen wands he then looked around the crowd sadly for a moment before raising his staff in the air and flying out of the room through a hole that lead outside. He had done as he had been prophesized, now though he had a duty to fulfill. He landed a few feet away from the main gate and with a gesture the sword, staff, and what was left of his costume disappeared all that was left was a bone weary Harry Potter clutching the elder wand.

* * *

Harry groaned as he opened his eyes to find a familiar pair of chocolate orbs watching him. "Hi," Hermione greeted him.

"Hey, Harry mumbled, "how'd you find me?"

"I knew that you would want to get away from all of the people," she answered shrugging.

"Thanks," he mumbled, "so now what?"

"Now you have to decide on who to tell about your survival Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said, as she and Madame Pompfrey strode into the room. "Mrs. Granger thought that you might wish to remain unknown for all that you did. It's not everyone that can defeat You-Know-Who, she thought you might want to decide how to deal with the fame that would come from this."

Harry looked at her in disbelief, "you think that I want to deal with all of the crowds? No offense Professor but that's not the way that I want to live. Besides there are other reason that people need to believe that I'm dead or at least gone."

"Does that include the Weasley's Harry?" Hermione questioned him cautiously.

Harry looked torn for a moment before nodding reluctantly. "I love the Weasley's like they were my family, but I can't let them or Hagrid know no matter how much I would like to tell them they can't keep a secret."

"Very well Mr. Potter, we shall keep word of your survival and your other secret safe then." McGonagall said nodding her face showing some slight disappointment. "Poppy here tells me that along with your host of unknown abilities that you have now gained the ability to heal faster and that in three days even she will have to release you despite all of the damage that you took during that battle."

"Thanks for agreeing professor," Harry said he then had to deal with the host of questions from Poppy who was checking all of his vitals. He waited till that was done before turning to Hermione. "I hope this doesn't cause problems with you and Ron."

"I doubt it will, it might be difficult at first but then again I do plan on keeping in contact with him while I go and fetch my parents it will be good practice."

"Want some company? I may need to get away for a while anyways." Harry offered his friend.

"That would be nice, and it should be rather peaceful trip as well."

"Good," Harry said, "cause afterwards I'm going to have to get to work stopping Dark Wizards and creatures is now my job."

"Harry?"

"That power I have Hermione, it wasn't a one-time thing, and it came with a price." Harry nervously explained to the witch. "I have to defend England from all types of magical attacks from now on I'm the 'Defender of the Realm.'" Hermione nodded in understanding by the set of her face she didn't like it but she understood.

"Well, it looks like we have our next adventure all set up when we get back then." Hermione said.

"Yeah I guess so, but you don't have to come with me on this one." Harry told her not wanting her to think that she had to do this.

"Stop right there Harry James Potter, I've stuck with you this far don't think I'm about to leave you now. We have a whole new stage of our lives starting. You're a new type of hero and once I learn enough I will be by your side fighting off the evils alongside of you."

"But…"

"No Harry, this is not up to discussion." The witch said stubbornly, "I have gone through hell for you before and I will do it again."

"Thanks Mione, as soon as I'm strong enough then we need to leave."

"Very well that gives me time to prepare then." The witch said, her mind already moving at lighting speed to think of all that she would need to do.


	2. Wonder Woman

**Wonder Woman**

Wonder Woman is a D.C character

* * *

Buffy Summers looked emotionlessly at A.D.A.M as she tore out his power core. The Slayer was not about to let this monster roam through the world any longer than she had to. She chanted the spell and sent the power core to another dimension. She then watched as the triborg took a couple of hesitant steps trying to steady itself before falling to the ground. Its robot eye stopped glowing and the other eye was now lifeless. The Slayer then fell to the ground on her hands and knees as she felt all of the extra power in her body leave her. The blonde coughed a minute as her body began returning to the level of power that it normally housed itself at. She couldn't believe that she had managed to survive all of the power that had been coursing through her. She had thought near the end that the power would overwhelm her and that she would fry from all the power.

The Slayer was interrupted from her figuring things out when a mocking clapping sound was heard. Turning her head the slayer noted a woman wearing a red dress stepping out of a room off to the side. "That was almost impressive." The woman said as she came into view.

"Yeah, well I didn't see you trying to stop him." Buffy returned to the woman.

"Please like I would need to do something as pointless as that?" The woman returned to her. "Do you know what that would do to my nails? Besides I am less than impressed that you were only able to keep that up for a few minutes before falling down."

"So what do you want?" Buffy asked warily as she looked the woman over. If she wasn't impressed by the enjoining spell then it was likely she was a lot more powerful than any of them would like to think about. If it took more than a super slayer to impress her then she could be in some major league trouble. She wasn't sure what all she could do right now.

"Actually that's kind of interesting." The blonde returned to her with a deadly smile that sent a shiver down the slayer's back. "You see, there are these monks that stole my key and it's the only way that I have on getting home. I happen to know some of hoe those crazy monks think I knew that if I went after them they would just find a way to hide it with one of the various champions that are on this mudball. So I got to thinking that it just might be easier if I were to just destroy all of the so called champions before I went after my key. And once I get my key I'll just go on home. As the most successful slayer in years you might be one of the ones that they try and send it to. So in order to find a way to get my key I need to deal with you, the slayer in LA and with the vampire with a soul before I head for other areas. After that is done I go and get my key from the monks that stole it. Once that's done I can leave this wreck ball of a planet forever. Say goodbye rat hole dimension and hello to the one that I am the goddess of."

A goddess huh?" Buffy said disbelievingly as she looked the woman over. The look in her eyes reminded her of the one that was in Drusilla's. "And you just plan on killing me because I might be given this key thingy of yours that some monks stole from you? Whatever happened to finders keepers, or possession being nine tenths of the law?" She questioned the woman wondering if she was being serious.

Of course I'm going to kill you honey. Its just better this way. The woman said. "It's not like you or this dimension are even all that important anyways."

Hope you don't mind if I take exception to that your worshipfulness. Buffy said as she pulled her fist back and threw a punch at the woman. The slayer winced at the jarring affect that hitting the woman had on her hand.

Where her fist connected it jerked the woman's head back but that was all as she watched the amused woman turn her head back to face her. You hit me the woman said in surprise seeming more annoyed that she had struck her than anything else. It also didn't seem like the woman had really felt the blow either. The woman backhanded the slayer into the wall.

Buffy gasped as she felt herself slam into the wall. She felt blood trickling down the side of her face where her nails had sliced her cheek open and she had either bruised or cracked ribs where she had slammed into the wall. All of that from just an annoyed swipe of her hand. The slayer realized that she just might be in more trouble than she had originally thought as she looked down at her throbbing hand. Buffy climbed to her feet and did a running kick aiming for the softer stomach area. The woman managed to catch the foot and then swung sending Buffy crashing into another wall.

You don't really think that you have a chance in this do you? Glory asked as she lifted the small blonde by the back of her shirt. Buffy squirmed a bit and slipped out of the white long sleeved shirt she had been wearing over a spaghetti strap shirt. She then slammed both of her legs into the woman finally knocking her back. As buffy climbed to her feet she saw a blur and suddenly she felt herself being hit from all sides. She held her sides for a moment as she fell and saw the blur slow down and turn into Glory. She stood over the Slayer and raised her fist to finish her off.

As the blow was about to hit her, the blonde braced herself and closed her eyes to accept the blow. When nothing happened she slowly opened her eyes and saw that the woman's fist was hovering a few centimeters front of her face. She could actually feel the fist against her eyelash as she blinked. She leaned her head back in surprise. She scooted away from the fist before looking around the room. She saw what looked like an old man, or at least he had long white hair and a beard. He had a body that looked like that of a wrestler or body builder. Not that she spent anytime watching guys workout at the gym because that would be wrong.

"You were doing impressive little Slayer," the figure informed her, "however, despite all that you were still about to lose. And once you lose you die in this fight."

"Yeah, I kind of noticed that wasn't really much with the whole holding back or anything." The Slayer returned as she slowly climbed back up to her feet. She noticed that woman was blurring slightly, and seemed to be moving in slow motion. "So ah who are you now?"

"I am Zeus, King of the Greek Pantheon." The man said proudly.

"And I'm sure the Greek panthers are all very happy for you." The Slayer said warily, wondering briefly if she had just traded one powerful crazy person for another. "Oh wait, you mean the king of the god's right?" She asked as his name penetrated her mind.

"As I said, I am Zeus King of the Gods, and I have a proposition for you little Slayer. We give you the power to fight this thing and we get to claim you as our Champion for this World."

"Uh huh, and what do you get out of having me work as your personal little Champion?" The blonde asked slightly disbelieving that the God would just offer her power without some strings attached to it. "Besides I already have a deal with the Powers that Be in case you forgot."

The God chuckled a bit. "I see that the blonde act is indeed just that an act. The beauty of Aphrodite combined with the wisdom of Athena serves you well youngling. I can make this deal because certain rules were broken allowing me to interfere. Had she waited some time then I would not have been able to help you."

"So, what are the strings and what are the powers that you're talking about anyways?" She asked, her voice colored with curiosity. Now that she knew that there was a reason that he was doing this now.

The God nodded his head in understanding. "The power I offer you is a great power." The God promised her. "You have a companion that loves the comics as I understand correct?"

"Yeah, Xander likes his comics and his twinkies." The blonde said in agreement. "What's that got to do with anything though?" She questioned not understanding.

Zeus ignored the questions as he continued on. "Have you ever heard of a hero called Wonder Woman then?"

Buffy frowned for a minute. "Wait, she's the one that flies around with the shiny rope and wears the flag bathing suit right?" The Slayer questioned curiously.

"Yes indeed she is." Zeus said with a chuckle. "I can give you the power of the Wonder Woman. I can make you stronger and faster than you can imagine, I can make you nearly invulnerable; give you the power of flight and a host of other powers." Zeus promised her with a grin. "You will be more than a match for this Hell Goddess that you're fighting right now." He said nodding to the slow moving Glory that was turning around.

"What's the catch?" Buffy asked curiously as her eyes drifted between the two powerful beings. Zeus had more raw power it seemed yet Glory was the one that had been using her as a punching bag. Why he didn't just stop her she didn't know.

"If I give you this power though Slayer, then you will no longer be bound to the hellmouth. Instead the world will be you're responsibility. It shall be your duty to go and deal with the monsters that haunt the world throughout it all. For too long have we Gods been forced to stand aside and watch as the world falls apart young Slayer. We have decided no more though we shall allow it. No more shall we watch. We will give you the power to defend all parts of the world. The Council of Godheads has awoken from our long rest. We have spoken together, and already we have begun choosing our new Champions. The world shall be protected as it once was."

"And the catch?" Buffy said nervously, as she listened to the Olympian and his offer. It all sounded so good, too good to be true without there being some sort of cost.

"You must agree to release the dark Slayer to take your place here while you go throughout the world and take on new duties and responsibilities." The Olympian informed her.

"Like I said there's the catch." Buffy said crossing her arms and staring defiantly at the God. "I can't do that, the price is too high. I don't trust Faith to do right by everyone else. If I did that I don't know what could happen."

Zeus frowned at the young woman annoyance his eyes flashing with lighting. "I see very well then. I shall come once more if you change your mind. While I cannot fight your battle for you maybe the fact that you are now prepared for her will help you do battle."

"Maybe," Buffy said as she sidestepped out of the way of the slow moving figure and slammed her fist into her. As the two connected they rejoined with regular flow of time as the woman was sent tumbling forward.

Glory glared at her angrily. "You're going to pay for that slayer." She snarled. Stepping forward she backhanded the slayer. Buffy let out a huff of air as the blow picked her up and tossed her into the wall. Buffy felt the side of her face and winced she was fairly sure that her cheekbone or jaw had just been broke. As Buffy tried climbing to her feet the woman in a red dress picked her up by her shirt. The woman shook the young woman around a couple of times before throwing her through the doorway that she had bordered up to keep her and Adam in. The Slayer looked behind her and saw that her shocked friends were climbing to their feet. Looking up behind them they saw Riley follow the Slayer a moment later before the unknown blonde woman. The Scoobies looked behind them as they saw Spike and Graham come out from the other way. The pair noticed the unknown woman and charged at her. The hell goddess moved quickly. She slammed her fist into Spikes chest ripping his hearts out she smirked at the group as she withdrew her bloodied hand yanking the vampires heart out.

"Bugger," Spike said before he dusted. Graham fired his gun at the woman and they all watched as the woman moved out of the way of the stream of bullets. She then appeared behind the soldier and grabbed him from behind. She lifted him up and seemed to be considering what she should do with her before a casual twitch snapped his neck and she let him drop to the ground. Giles was next as he tried to tackle the woman while Buffy looked for a weapon. The hellgod glared at the man. "Hey, hands off the bod." She said as she backhanded him into the wall. The Watcher coughed a bit from where he laid. The woman towered over him delivered several sharp kick to his ribs. The Watcher gasped in agony as he felt the ribs snap like twigs.

Xander, Riley, Willow, and Buffy body slammed her and pushed into the main room. The hellgod pushed the scoobies away until only Riley was left. She grabbed him by the face and slammed downward. The scoobies all winced as they saw the skull shatter beneath her hand. Moving faster than any of them could follow the woman came up behind Xander and sliced her nails into his flesh. The construction worker collapsed as the damage was done to his spine. Willow and Buffy were the only ones left. The Slayer moved forward only for the hell god to move around and disable the witch in training by tossing her into the pit where the demons were. The witch screamed in pain as her arms were pierced as she fell onto the spikes of another demon.

"Now that all of your friends are out of the way lets finish this. Glory said with an insane smile gracing her lips.

Buffy looked at the scattered trail of her broken friends that the hell goddess had left. As it was her friends might not survive. The Goddess had decimated them all with ease. If she didn't think of a way to stop her then they would all be dead. Unfortunately there was only one way for her to stop the crazy woman. Either take the deal or her friends died. Casting one final look at them she called out. "Fine Zeus, I accept your offer. I'll even help get Faith out of Jail myself if I have to." Electricity filled the air as what looked like small lightning bolts began to surround the slayer and lights exploded around her. While the energy cage formed around her the ground began to move under her feet. It worked its way upward slowly incasing her body in Earth. Soon she was covered in the substance making it seem as if she had become a statue. Willow and Xander could only watch helplessly as their friend appeared to be transformed into a statue. They watched as the lighting bolts began to change colors and strike the statue seeming to remake it into a new image.

"Get out of my way." Glory snarled as demons and soldiers attacked her. She reached out and grabbed two of them throwing them away from her. The hell god approached the energy cage. Reaching out her hand to grab one of the bolts she was suddenly blasted away as the energy reacted to her. The hell god had a look of fury on her face as she rose to her feet. A cracking sound could be heard and those watching could see glowing cracks start to appear along the statue. The lightning bolts glowed brighter as they fed more power into the statue. With a large crack the stone shattered off of the figure incased inside. The hell god turned to regard her opponent. Her clothes had been replaced with what looked like Greek armor. She was dressed in dark red leather one piece dress with a golden chest plate in the shape of an eagle, a blue leather skirt with silver studs in the shape of stars. On her waist she wore a golden belt with a glowing golden rope. She wore heavy red metal boots that came up to her knees and silver bracers that covered most of her forearms. Atop her head was a golden tiara with a red gem in the middle of it. The young woman's clothes were not the only thing to change though. Her body had as well. The short girl had grown a couple of inches while incased in stone. Her once bleach blonde hair had changed to an all natural blonde. Her once petite figure was now also a marvel as she now had carefully sculpted muscles all over her body. The new Champion of the Greek Pantheon nodded toward the hell goddess and charged.

She moved in and delivered several blows to the woman's body this time as she connected they didn't damage her own hands and instead sent her opponent flying around the room. Glory stumbled back to her feet and began moving at super speed again. Buffy saw the blows coming this time and managed to block the blows. She then slammed her own hand into the woman's face sending her flying into the electric fence. The gate she slammed into tried shocking the Hell god who merely shrugged it off as if it was nothing as she climbed back to her feet. Her dress now had some burn marks on it but she was still in the fight. Reaching out the hell god yanked a heavy metal pipe up and threw it at her revitalized opponent. The armored figure knocked the incoming missile off course with her bracer before moving forward. The two figures slammed into each other and began trading blows. Buffy was the more skilled fighter but Glory was more used to fighting beings at high level of speeds and having strength levels that could be measured in the tons. Her experience was giving her an edge as she slammed the Greek Champion through one wall. Buffy grunted as she climbed to her feet only to be met by a foot that smacked her in the face. Grinning Glory leaned down picked up the hero and threw her back the way that she had come. A tumbling Slayer landed near Xander.

Buffy looked at her friend who was hurt and in pain before climbing back to her feet. As Glory sped over to repeat her attack Buffy stopped the leg and then flipped the hell goddess over knocking her to the ground. Now that Buffy was back on her feet she eyed the woman carefully before she lashed out striking out at her, knocking the hell goddess s hard as she could. The taunting from both of them had long since stopped as they were now completely focused on beating each other.

Glory snarled as she lifted a large computer terminal with one hand and threw it. Buffy ducked beneath the shot and did a flying tackle that brought Glory down. As she straddled her she began raining down more blows before a back hand sent her flying away. The two were both back on their feet and eyeing each other. Glory made the first move and rushed Buffy and slammed both her hands into the young woman by sending her flying again.

Buffy climbed to her feet wondering how much more of this she could take. The longer this went the less likely it was that she could win. Glory simply had to many tricks. Her hand strayed to the rop at her side and she suddenly knew what it could do. This lasso was a combination of Wonder Woman's and Wonder Girl's Golden Lasso's which meant it was more than just unbreakable. Palming the rope she leaped at the woman. She kneed her in the stomach and then an uppercut to the face dazed her. While she was weakened she tied her up. The rope was unbreakable and there was no way that the Hell God could manage to get out of those bindings. It was time to finish this though as she doubted that Glory would leave now that she had been beaten. Focusing on her rope she allowed the power of the rope to flow and watched as lighting streamed through the rope and began pouring its power into Glory. The woman screamed once before falling.

Buffy stopped and hobbled over to check her over as she got close she loosened the rope and that was when Glory struck the Hell God had merely been playing possum. She reached out and snagged the rope and wrapped it around Buffy's throat and smirked at her. Buffy knocked her head back catching her in the face knocking the goddess off of her. Buffy then moved toward her and grabbed her from behind with a twist she broke the woman's neck.

As the Hell Goddess fell, Buffy sighed with relief. Xander clapped weakly from where he was lying on the ground. Neither of them even noticed as the figure changed into that of a man. "Buffster, I can now die happy a happy man." He told her with a weak grin. "You've managed to combine a Wonder Woman costume and Xena armor and wear it." He joked at her.

Buffy smiled at her friend blushing slightly as she realized how revealing the armor actually was. Yeah well glad I could make you happy she told him. She then walked over to her friend and tied him onto a makeshift stretcher Giles and Willow each on their own. The blonde looked sadly at the remains of what had been Graham and Riley both men had died needlessly. She made sure the group was secured before she shakily took off hauling her friends towards the elevator shaft. Once she pulled them out of the building she managed to secure them to a truck and drove them out toward the hospital. Once there she took them to the emergency room.

She then waited through the next 24 hours as the doctors worked over her friends. With Willow they couldn't do much. During the fight her friend had landed on a demon with several poison covered spines. The poison had entered through her nervous system. This meant that she had extremely twitchy hands that would occasionally spasm from time to time. The redhead probably wouldn't ever speed hack or perform complex spells ever again without any help. Giles had most of his rib cage shattered and would likely spend anywhere from the next year to three years recovering from his injuries and that was if he was lucky. They thought that they had managed to remove the fragments from anything vital as well. Buffy made a mental note to call some of Giles magic friends to make sure his body healed right. Finally there was Xander who actually might have come through with the least amount of injury. They had been forced to operate on his spine and had somehow managed to repair some of the damage that the Hell Goddess had done to him. He would always tire easily and have a permanent heavy limp but at least he would be able to walk again. Buffy couldn't help but think of the skateboard that Xander used to own and how he would probably never do anything like that again. His recovery was listed at a year to six months.

Buffy visited with them all for a few minutes the heavy meds that they were all under meant that the visits were short. She looked over at her mom whom had come when she heard that they were all lying in the hospital. She wondered what the woman would say when she learned that the amount of power it would take to make her lie in a hospital bed now. Then again she doubted her mom wanted to hear how she had to leave or that she was pretty much an immortal now though.

She walked out to get some coffee her first one where she wouldn't be worrying about her friends being alive or dead when she walked back into the room. Her relief left her as she saw four soldiers making their way toward her. Considering all the trouble that the military had given her recently she really didn't want to deal with them now. The four men appeared to be packed for bear and were coming straight at her though.

"Miss Summers," one of them said, "the government would like to ask you some questions. You are to surrender yourself at once. Failure to comply with this order will result in our having to use forced to take you into custody and treat you as a hostile."

"Yeah, so please make the smart choice." One of the soldiers said with a cocky grin as he looked at the former slayer.

And just who in particular is it that wants to talk with me? Buffy questioned warily.

The colonel just wants to ask you some questions. There is also the fact that you may have stolen government property and research that enhanced your already considerable abilities.

What, he's taking credit for my abilities? Buffy fumed in annoyance. He and the government had nothing to do with any of my powers or abilities and there is no way that I am coming with you just so you can poke and prod me either."

The soldier seemed to shrug at this. Have it your way Miss Summers. Our orders are to bring you in dead or alive. He informed her as they all raised their weapons at her.

This is your last chance to surrender yourself Miss Summers." One of them growled while people began disappearing into other rooms out of the line of gun fire.

"No thanks." Buffy returned to him.

"Very well then, fire!" All four men opened fire on the slayer with their assault rifles. The Greek Champion responded by raising her arms and then began moving at speeds she had never known she could move at. As bullets whizzed all around her, the ones that would have hit her ended up bouncing off of her bracers. For several minutes this went on until each man's rifle emptied and they stared in shock as the saw the unharmed young woman was unharmed. Her bracers weren't even damaged despite the damage shots that they had taken.

"Take her." The lead soldier commanded leading the group into attack. Buffy ducked the stock of a rifle and delivered a punch that bent him over while he was down her knee rose up and slammed into his face. She spun on her heel and delivered a kick to the next one to charge at her. The next two came at her at the same time from either side, their rifles with bayonets attached. The blonde leaned back and let the weapons pass by her. She reached up and grabbed the weapon barrels and jerked the guns out of the hands of their owners. She then slammed the weapons into the chests of the soldiers sending them flying into opposite walls. The soldiers all groaned in pain as they lay on the ground.

"At least you're already at the hospital." The young woman offered the group with a smile as she watched the various medical people come out from hiding to check on the downed men. The super powered girl headed for the nearest exit knowing that she had to get out now while she could. Sooner or later her not so favorite colonel would send more people in after her.

As she walked out the doors she was surprised as she saw around fifty men with assault rifles standing at the ready with their guns focused on her. She blinked a bit as the various laser sights covered her head and torso. Several small spotlights from jeeps focused on her and a large one from a helicopter pinned her. "That's far enough Summers." The colonel shouted from a megaphone from the helicopter. A stealth helicopter swung around from the other side of the building flashing its lights on her as well. She could distantly hear the sound of jeeps and running boots as the men stationed on the other side of the hospital moved to join them.

As the blonde watched the group her mind began filling with information about the various weapons and capabilities that each of them had. It seemed that Zeus hadn't told her everything that she could do. She thought as she now knew how they worked instead of just doing it without knowing. A definite improvement over the old slayer package she thought.

You're surrounded Summers give yourself up. You're too valuable to the country for us to just let you go and do your own thing. Adam may not have worked out like we hoped but you might. Now stand down before we're forced to hurt you.

So not happening Colonel. Buffy returned at him. By the way you have a funny way of saying thanks for saving our asses. She shot off angrily. I'll be sure to remember it. The blonde then shot into the air past the colonel and all of the others and took off leaving only a streak of red, blue and gold behind her. The blonde was furious as she took off.

As the Greek Champion calmed down she took notice that she had managed to reach LA in a matter of minutes. She landed on the ground and looked around two figures stood waiting for her as she landed. How ya doing kid. Whistler greeted her as she came before them.

"Whistler," Buffy greeted coolly. "What are you doing here?"

"New assignment actually kid." The balance demon explained to her. My new job is to work with the current slayer and since that means helping her out of this mess then that's what I got to do. After that I'm to report to Sunnydale and act as her connection to the bosses. All of the rules have been changed and they're having to work to put everything in balance that they can."

Buffy nodded at the demon as she turned to the other figure. "And you are?" She questioned. The figure was lithe and good looking and felt familiar somehow.

"Hermes," the figure returned at her. "Your speed and flight were my blessings. I'm also the messenger of Zeus, so we'll probably see each other from time to time. I'm here to make sure that you and the Powers follow through right now though. We know that you're tempted to stay but it's too dangerous. You saw what they tried to do to you earlier today." He reminded her. "If you hadn't left they probably would have turned you into a science experiment and had some of those chips of theirs implanted in you."

Buffy nodded and shivered her understanding. She then turned as she saw Faith walk out of the gates of jail. The young woman looked uncertain as she looked around at where she was. Sighing Buffy raised her hand and gestured her over. Faith took a look at the trio and took an uncertain step back before swallowing, squaring her shoulders, and walking right up to them.

"B," Faith greeted with false bravo that didn't reach the rest of her face. "Nice clothes." She complimented with a bit of envy as she noted the leather and armor the other girl wore. She would have gone with all black personally but this was Buffy who liked to pretend that she was something that she wasn't.

"Faith," Buffy greeted with a strained smile.

"So why am I out?" The brunette questioned. "I had Wolfram and Hart and good lawyers overturning anything and everything that there was to get me out of that mess." She said jerking her thumb at the prison.

"Rules have been changed, and as a Champion you have to be moved." Buffy explained before either of the others gave some long winded speech about what was happening. She knew that the Slayer would prefer a simple as explanation as possible. "Someone broke a lot of the rules so now everything has to be put in differently. Because of the rule change though I got bumped up by the Greek Gods and that means you got to head for Sunnyhell."

"Okay." Faith said a little unsure. "Do the others know about all of this?"

"They're all in the hospital and are probably stuck in research from now on." Buffy informed her. "Giles and Xander are in the hospital and Willow has nerve damage. They can explain it to you later. If you want a team you're going to have to make your own." Buffy informed her. "Whistler here says that it's his job to go with you and act like your connection to the Powers. Be careful with him though he likes to talk in riddles."

"And where are you and hunky going?" Faith asked as she eyed the other figure with B.

"Away." Buffy returned to her.

"Training," Hermes said, "her powers have increased massively, and she has to be retrained before she's ready to do anything right now. She has the knowledge of what to do she just needs the experience to balance her out."

"Take care of each other." Buffy told her. The dark haired Slayer nodded and looked over at Whistler who was fishing out a pair of keys. She turned back to say something but saw a sight she hadn't been prepared for. There was Buffy and her new boy flying away. Buffy nowhere near as steady, but getting better. She used her hearing to listen in on what they were saying.

"I don't know why it's so hard now. I did this earlier." The former slayer whined out.

"Yes, but that was when you were reacting to a hundred soldiers and two helicopters on your tail." The other figure told her. There was some more grumbling but it was soon to soft for Faith to hear.

"Hey kid lets go." Whistler said as he pulled up in an old Dodge Charger. "We got to get back to Sunnyhell, and unless you want to explain why you're with me to Angel we need to get on the road. And let me tell you with Angel you never know how he's going to react. Besides he has his own new path to follow anyways."

Faith nodded and slid through the open window. "What?" She asked him. "I always wanted to do that." She defended herself.

"Whatever Slayer, but you're not painting her orange, welding the doors shut, or replacing the horn." Whistler informed her.

"Slayer?" Faith asked in surprise.

"That's right kid you're the Slayer now. Blondie has other things to do now." Faith nodded and leaned back wondering what all it really did mean for her and how her life would be now. Would she be out of the blonde's shadow or would she make her own. Her thoughts stayed on this as they passed out of the city and onto the highway. Well that and how to convince Whistler to let her paint the car black and soup up the engine. She also needed to find her a guy to deal with her H&H. There were some things that even she didn't get into.

Xena styled uniform: Top has red leather jerkin, metal breastplate in shape of golden eagle, large gold belt, leather pleated skirt in blue that has studs in the shape of stars.

I used the designs of Xena's armor and a picture I found online for the way I described the armor


	3. Dr Fate

**Fate**

Dr. Fate belongs to D.C comics.

* * *

Bill Weasley scratched the side of his face grimacing as he felt the scar tissue and stubble. The scars were a result from the war with Voldemort. The infamous werewolf Fenrir Greyback had scratched him up while in his human form. The wounds had given him weakened benefits of the werewolf but nothing more. He now had the slightly better senses and stamina that most werewolves had. He hated the feel of the scars on his face sometimes but knew that he had no right to complain about them. There were others that had gotten far worse than a few scratches on their face. His family were prime examples of that. One brother dead another shattered at the loss of said brother, Ginny was also lost though she seemed to be feeling the loss of George more than the loss of her boyfriend. She also had night terrors of her time stuck in Hogwarts and from when she had been possessed. Then there was his dad, the man might not talk about it but they all saw the blood that some days leaked out of the wounds that he had gotten from Voldemort's bloody snake. The magic of the poison was still in the scars. Finally there was his youngest brother Ron. The fiery tempered young man was a broken shell of himself with his best friend dead and the other member of the trio having disappeared. It was figured a sympathizer had found the young muggle born witch. The loss of the pair though had made him lost. Harry and Hermione had given Ron a direction in his life without them he was like a drifting ship. Everyone had thought that harry would win the war for them. Voldemort was supposed to fall to the young wizard. Everyone thought that he was the next Dumbledore or Flamel. Instead some unknown calling himself Gryffindor had done it. Ron had told them that Harry had made it possible for Voldemort to die but had never explained what he meant saying the fewer that knew the fewer Dark Lords that would come back to haunt them if the knowledge ever became public.

The eldest of the Weasley children had only been to glad to return to Egypt at the request of his old curse breaking mentor. An old Egyptian temple had been found by his mentor and he had summoned all of his best and brightest students to help him open the temple up. The goblins had been a bit put out with him, but it seemed that had more to do with the fact that Ron was his brother. It had something to do with a pureblood vault, a sword, and a dragon. He never had been able to get the tale out of the goblins or Ron. So here he was back in Egypt preparing to enter a Temple.

"Well lads, this will be interesting." The man said with his heavy accent as they all took one final look upward at the mighty temple. "Let's get started then." The others nodded as they eyed each other nervously there were curse breakers, ward setters, ward breakers, Rune Layers, Herbologist, Healers, a Magical Creatures and Squib treasure hunter trained. Combined they were one of the most skilled treasure hunting teams ever created. The man had trained them all to be some of the best in their fields. As one the ward breakers and curse breakers began slicing through the defenses around the building. The group moved slowly but surely as they sliced through all of the various defenses that had been placed. In the weeks that that they had they spent the first three days just getting through the front doors and it was two weeks later that they found the chamber that would change their lives.

It was one of the centermost chambers and as they walked in they noted all of the gold underfoot. As they waved their wands they saw something that very few magical beings had ever seen resting its head on the floor. "Is that a Pendragon?" Bill questioned in awe as he looked at a golden dragon with giant wings sleeping before them. He remembered Charlie telling him a bit about these creatures and just how rare they were. He just wished he remembered more about them right now.

"That it is." One of their Magical Creature experts said in awe. "Their scales are actually worth more than Goblin gold." The wizard said.

"What's an British Isle dragon doing in a temple in the Egyptian dessert though?" Someone asked.

"This one must have been brought over as an egg to act as guardian for the temple." The wizard returned. "There are only a handful of these beasts still alive and this one is in hibernation. They're supposed to be amongst the fiercest and most intelligent of dragons ever. According to Legends Merlin allowed Arthur to ride on his pet Pendragon when it was younger. Rumor has it that the same dragon's scales were melted down and formed a special suit of golden armor for Arthur. They're supposed to be the King of the Dragons, the only dragons that have a chance of beating a full grown Basilisk in a straight up fight. Some legends say that they can take a killing curse and survive their hides are supposed to be that powerful. This beast alone could finance and justify the expenses of this trip." The man said with a grin. "If we could get it to shed soon we would be able to pay the goblins off."

While everyone else was discussing the beast and its worth Bill was looking around. His time of surviving the war made him a bit more cautious and wanting to secure the room first before deciding it was safe. Off to one side stood a small stand and on it rested a golden cape. On a nearby table rested gloves, boots, belt, and on another table beneath a protective case stood a golden helmet. If he had to guess he would say that they were all made from Pendragon hide and the helmet from the horns. Before he could call anyone over a loud roar was heard and several Anubites crawled out of the shadows. The creatures were human shaped the difference though was that they had the heads of jackals and were nearly seven feet tall. The creatures were gifted with enhanced speed, strength, agility, senses and could jump some thirty feet. They were some of the most dangerous killers in Egypt As they came closer to the worried wizards a part of the wall seemed to come to life as several golems rose from the gold and headed toward them. A part of the wall slid to the side and a mummy stepped out into view.

The mummy seemed to be the leader as it shambled forward. "Ah wizards, at last you are here." The creature said. "I wondered how long it would take you to find my home." The creature raised its arms and wrappings sprang from its arms and wrapped all around a wizard. "Give me your strength, your magic, your knowledge." It hissed out at the tied wizard. The bound wizard glowed for a moment and the glow moved up the wrappings and toward the mummy. "Yes," the creature said seeming to grow before their eyes. It released the wizard and all that was left was a withered husk of a person.

"Anthony!" Someone shouted in surprise as they looked at what had been an Italian wizard but was now a husk.

Everyone responded by firing various spells out at the creatures. The mummy moved faster than they had thought possible as it dodged two spells and wrapped another wizard in its grip. The transfer happened again killing the wizard. The others scattered determined to make it more difficult for the monster to suck their lives and magic away from them.

Bill fell into the case that had held the golden objects and knocked the down he looked at the fallen garments carelessly and would have continued on if a stray spell hadn't struck the helmet. The blast of magical power made the helmet's eyes slots glow. It rose into the air and spun slowly as if taking everything in. "Greetings young one, it appears that you are in some trouble." It noted to the redhead who snorted at the helmet.

"You could say that." Bill said as he saw a familiar glow of yet another wizard falling to the mummy.

"I can help you man of Order. Allow me to rejoin the world. Take up the raiment's of the Egyptians. Let the old ones share their power with you."

"And what would I get out of this deal?" Bill asked warily. He was doubtful that the deal would help him. He remembered his father often saying never to try anything that you didn't know where its brain was. He also knew from all of his dealings with the goblins that good deals rarely came around and that when you were pressured was always the worst time to take a deal.

"I would enhance your mystical powers, and give you other abilities." The helmet said. "With these abilities you would be able to stop the madness that happens here. You would be one of the champions that the Gods of Egypt call forth. Know though that if you choose to accept that you will forever be charged with guarding the world. It is not a light duty that you could take."

Bill flinched as another purple glow happened. He didn't have a choice he could either do this or die. He only had one thing to check. "Is this going to disrupt my marriage?" He asked as he thought of the young woman back at Shell Cottage waiting for his return.

The helm regarded him for a moment. "It could," it replied to him honestly. "You will have other duties now along with what you do now. It could change how you live. The Gods of Egypt will not ask you to sacrifice your life together so that you can do their will though. It will mean that she will have to accept this part of you as well."

"Fine, I'll do it." Bill said hoping he wasn't making a mistake. The helm glowed for a moment before it rose and settled itself on his head a white flash of light erupted from them and then settled. Bill looked down at his clothes and noticed that he was now wearing a blue tunic and pants with the golden gloves, boots, and belt on him. "Can it be red?" He asked the helm showing it the soft Gryffindor red that he had grown up knowing.

"I suppose." The helm said the clothes shifted and he was now dressed in red and gold.

"Perfect," Bill said as he examined his clothes. He looked up as the Anubites and mummy walked around a corner. He noticed that the mummy was dropping his latest victim and by the robes he knew that his mentor was now dead. Here goes nothing the young wizard though as he brought his hands up and blasted the Anubites away.

The mummy merely watched as the unknown destroyed the Anubites. "Impressive young one you have managed to destroy my followers. Who are you that wears the raiment's of a high Mage though?"

"You can call me Fate." The figure returned as the helm fed him a name as he crossed his arms and glared at the mummy. "You have fed now creature, return to your slumber and trouble the world no more." He commanded.

"Ah but I cannot." The mummy said with a leering grin. "You see, from those that I fed on I have learned of all that has transpired while I slept. The wards that have bound me here are no more and if I need to I can now disable any of the remaining wards that hold me here." It held a hand up and magical energy seemed to crackle around in its hand. "I am a slave to these walls no longer. I shall be free and I shall return the old kingdom back to its glory. There have to be others like me that will rise once I have shown myself."

"Your days are over ancient one." Fate returned. "I will stop you if I have to."

"Please don't make me laugh. I have the combined strength of over ten wizards flowing through me and you think with the aid of a few trinkets you can stand against me?" The wrappings sprang from its arms and wrapped around the red and gold figure. "Yes feed me. "

Bill grimaced as he felt the power in him being fed off of by this parasite. He had tried this the easy way now it was time to do this the hard way it seemed. He gathered the magic in him and pushed outward creating a dome styled shield around him another push and the wrappings were broken. He hovered about ten feet off the ground and stared at the mummy. You have forced my hand creature. He lowered himself to the ground and punched it as hard as he could he watched as the mummy was tossed into a wall by his punch.

"If that is the way that you wish to do it." The mummy spat as it raised its hands and talons sprouted from his finger nails. Fate waited as the feral mummy lunged at him. The creature sending enchanted claws at him while Fate returned with super powered blows. The mummy slashed and managed to catch him in the chest drawing blood spinning the monster slammed his talons into his back but watched in disbelief as his claws snapped when he hit. "How?" He hissed.

"Pendragon cape." The figure returned as he backhanded his attacker in another wall. "Its' time to finish this he said as he raised his hands he began firing magical energy at the mummy.

Not about to give up the monster snarled and returned fire with its stolen magic. The two stalemated for a moment and then with an extra surge of magical power slammed his spell fire into the mummy. Fate observed the fallen creature before raising his hand and fiendfyre surrounded the creature within minutes the flames had destroyed the monster. The Anubites all backed away as Fate gathered the bodies of the fallen and the handful of survivors.

They had come as a team of twenty and now counting Bill there were only six wizards left. "I have done my duty and stopped him." He said bowing to the group. "Perhaps next time you will research a bit more." He told the group. He looked down sadly at the fallen figure of his mentor before he stepped into a portal. He reappeared out of sight on the other side of the room and removed the helm. Once the helm was removed his clothes returned to what they had been before. He looked himself over for a moment in amazement before he placed the helm in his pack. He then moved forward to join the others who all greeted him sadly. The group then gathered the bodies of their friends and then headed out. Bill wondered what this change meant and who it was that he should tell. Only time would tell just what it was that he would do for now. He needed to learn how to use these new abilities though before he ended up hurting himself.


	4. Blade

Blade is a Marvel Comics character, the Morrigan are Irish War Gods, and the rest are BTVS characters.

* * *

Angel the infamous vampire with a soul once known as Angelus, the vampire with an angelic face, the heir of Aurlies, member of the Scourge of Europe. For being only two hundred years old that was quiet a record. Many supernatural creatures took four or five hundred years to acquire the same type of reputation that he had. The fact that most of his reputation had been earned in the first hundred years was even more amazing. The only one to have come close to the reputation that Angelus had would be Spike his grand childe who had become the Slayer of Slayers. The dark haired vampire currently had a duffle bag over his shoulder with the handful of odds and ends that he had managed to save from his home. Wolfram & Hart's demon sorcerer had destroyed his home and nearly destroyed his friends before he had managed to stop him. Everything was different than it had been a week ago. It was hard to believe that technically after everything that had happened that he could probably consider it all to be a draw.

Wolfram and Hart had lost one of their more powerful demon sorcerer's, the scroll with all of the prophecies about him, and finally there was his personal favorite of Lindsay and his loss of an arm. Angel actually felt kind of good about that last one. On the other hand though Angel had lost his home and offices to the explosion, and the Oracles were dead. Wolfram and Hart had managed to recover whatever it was that they had summoned by sacrificing a group of vampires. Angel had managed to save his team, recover the prophecy scroll, and kill the demon. He would have to wait to see what would come next though he doubted that it was all over. Whatever was in that cage had something to do with him he was sure of it. He doubted that a scroll with his prophecy on it was going to be summoning something for Buffy to fight. He didn't know how to go about figuring out just what it was tough or how he was supposed to stop it.

The vampire sighed before he turned and looked toward the east. He could feel the sun rising and with its rising meant that it was time for him to retreat back to Cordy's place. It wouldn't do for him to be caught out in the sun after all of this. As he turned he noticed a blanket of fall rolling in and fast. Something was using powerful magic and it was heading right for him. As he smelled the air hoping that he would be able to get an idea of what he was facing he was surprised as he sensed a bit of Ireland his homeland in the air. He wondered what would bring his homeland to him. A loud cawing sound seemed to echo off of the street. Looking into the fog, he saw a dark shape flying at him. The wings were moving up and down and he realized he was staring at a bird. He waited as the black bird flew toward him. As it got closer he recognized it as a crow and wondered what it wanted. The bird came nearer and then seemed to pick up speed and Angel had to dive to the side as it dive bombed him its talons nicking his scalp. The bird wheeled around and Angel prepared himself for its next pass. He was a little surprised when he watched the bird split into three different birds.

"I really don't have time for this." The vampire complained as he eyed the trio of dark feathered birds. His eyes roamed around looking for a way out of this mess. There off to the side was a sewer entrance. If he could make it to that and get in there he would be safe and then he could either wait them out until nightfall or he could wait for them to come down to him where they would lose the advantage of flight since the tunnels would box them in and he could easily run alongside of the walls if he needed to. He dove for the entrance only for the birds to block him from entering. Angel nervously looked where the rays of the sun were heading toward him. He moved forward and the birds moved to intercept him. He drew a stake from his jacket and threw it at the birds while charging forward. The crow managed to dodge the sharpened projectile and fly at him. Angel held his arms over his face as the birds began clawing and pecking at him. With no choice but to bear it Angel made his way toward the hatch. He vaguly noted that the birds had stopped as he reached the entrance and pulled. He was shocked as he found that the sewer lid was to heavy for him to lift. Either the explosion had welded it shut or something was holding it down. He turned to glare at the three birds that were now watching him. He let his inner demon out and snarled in defiance as he put all of his strength into lifting the lid. He ignored the rising sun as he began bunching all of his muscles he had for one final try with a roar he lifted the lid and pushed it to the side he looked at the crows with a snarl only to notice he was covered in sunlight but was not burning.

"How?" Angel questioned as he let the demon down as he looked around him in awe as he felt the sun upon his face yet still did not burn. This was supposed to be impossible yet here he was standing in the light of the morning sun.

"Well done champion." An accented voice behind congratulated him.

The unknown and unexpected voice caused the vampire to spin around dropping the sewer lid as he fell into a defensive crouch in the shadows of the buildings. He noticed three women in ancient chain mail armor that hugged their figures stood before him. Angel looked at the figures carefully as he tried to figure out just who he was dealing with. The three were like no one that he knew of off the top of his head though for some reason he was reminded of the furies. "Who are you?" He questioned nervously as he felt their power.

"We are Badb, Macha and Nemain." The three echoed as they spoke making the vampire frown as he listened. The frown turned to nervousness as he recognized the names.

"No way," he returned as he looked the three over shaking his head in disbelief at the claim that the three had just given him. "You can't be the Morrigan. He argued at them as he placed the names. "They were a story or a myth that my father used to tell me of the old ways. There is no way that you can be the Triple Goddess of War. He declared as he stared at them defiantly.

"And as you well know Champion, the stories of old have a nasty habit of being based on reality or coming true. Are you yourself not a being of stories meant to cause children to obey when they are told to?" The three women questioned with a smile as they all continued to talk as one.

"But the Morrigan?" Angel asked still trying to wrap his head around that. "If you're real then how come I've never heard o you appearing to someone before?" He questioned them as he began slipping into his old accent.

"Would ye prefer that we converse in Gaelic little Champion?" They questioned him with amusement.

The vampire realized that they were who they claimed and nodded his head to the gods of his homeland. "What do you want?" Angel questioned deciding that he might as well listen to what it was that these beings wanted. He doubted that it was anything good for him though.

"Angel, the vampire once known as Angelus. We have come to set you on your new path."

"Thanks, but I already have the scroll it should be enough to get me started on the path I'm on now." The vampire replied hoping that they were either here to replace the Oracles or that they were simply late in the party of directing him in what to do. Sure Wes hadn't gotten everything on the scroll translated but he was working on it.

The Morrigan smiled at the vampire in amusement. "The balance was altered vampire. The change has forced many of the Elders of the Council of Gods to awaken from their long slumbers to help the balance. In doing so, 10,000 years of prophecy has been destroyed. The scroll that you fought so hard for means nothing now as everything that was written means nothing anymore. The rise of the First, the miracle child, the beast shall not open the portal, and the flower shall not bring its ways." The triad explained to the vampire as they looked and saw what would have been in the world.

"Fine then, if you know what's going to happen why don't you tell me then?" Angel growled at the three with annoyance.

"Your destiny has changed vampire, and you must change with it. We have chosen you to be one of our champions. You shall be a champion for your land." The trio explained to him.

"And that changes things for me how?" Angel questioned them dryly. "I thought I was already a Champion, just one that worked for the Powers."

"The Powers are only allowed to work with the Chosen One. None other are they allowed to direct, that is to be their punishment for allowing the world to change as it has." The Morrigan returned at him. You will find that while we force less onto our Champions we are also more willing to reward those that are beneath us.

"Yeah and what do I get out of following you?" Angel questioned them. "A new prophecy, or maybe a reset on everything that I've done?

Hardly vampire we have chosen to increase your power instead your duty to that which is good has shown that you are worthy of this power. The Powers denied you what they could have given you. We are not so.

"And what kind of power would that be?" Angel asked them.

"Unto you we give to you one of the gifts that you have fought for. We give unto you your soul bound now it shall be bound now shall it stay. Angelus shall be no more." Angel stared at them in disbelief even as he felt his entire body glow as their will was worked throughout his form. "Our next gift unto you is the increase of your powers. As many other champions have received. We have taken your powers from the being known as Blade." Angel frowned not knowing what they were talking about before he gasped as air began flooding his lungs. Air and a heartbeat suddenly began rushing through him. "You are now a Damphir, you have all of the powers and strengths and knowledge of the one known as Blade added unto your own."

Angel nodded as he felt his head fill with knowledge of another life. Blade had been blessed with a vampire speed and strength the ability to sense mystical items and the ability to walk whenever he felt like it. Added onto his own powers it made him capable of fighting a vampire many years his senior. As it was he could probably now go toe to toe with an Ancient vampire and win. He looked down at his hands smiling as he realized that he was now a Day-Walker. He looked up at the rising sun and stepped fully into its light. The Morrigan smiled at the former vampire as he greeted and accepted his new ability. "What now?" He questioned them not believeing that they wouldn't have orders for him.

"Rid this city of its monsters then move onto the next one. No more shall you be bound by the concept of your city you shall destroy the primary demon and vampire problems that each city has and move on. By staying in one place you have become complacent warrior. Others shall rise to defend the place that is their home."

Angel nodded his head in reluctant acceptance. He had come out to L.A to be away from Buffy but close enough that he could come to her aide if she needed him. Now that his soul was permanent and he could walk out into the sun he was bound by his new life to leave her even farther behind than before.

"Fine, let's get this started then." Angel said gruffly. "Can I hurt Wolfram and Hart before I go though?"

"Of course you can, it shall give the next champion time to learn and train." The group echoed. "Know this though, those that you consider your team and family have their own paths now. Their tasks shall lead them back to where the fight began for them."

"The hellmouth." Angel noted getting agreeing nods from the warrior women.

"They have chosen their path to stay true to the Powers, this means to defend the hellmouth they shall go."

Angel nodded. "Alright, lets go and kill some demons then." The Damphir said as he marched toward his car.

* * *

Angel arrived before the tall building and checked his weapons. He had several gun loaded with hollow tipped rounds. While most of the rounds probably wouldn't kill anything they would hurt vampires and lesser demons pretty badly and do unknown damage to anything else. High demon would probably be unaffected but he would work with what he had. Striding in he began. He ignored the various alarms and walked through the defenses that came up. As guards moved to intercepts him they were met with fists and feet as they were disabled. Angel strode right up into the main area of special operations with a smile he pulled his jacket back and drew the two guns and began firing. The bullets tore through demon and human alike Angel didn't make any distinction as he walked through the rooms. Up and down hallways he went delivering death and destruction to all he found. He made his way to the top offices and found the way being blocked by two large demons.

"Move," he commanded even as he fired into the demons. He watched as the bullets seemed to bounce off of the demons scaly hides.

"Not quite as easy as you thought that it would be I presume?" Holland Manners questioned as the doors of his office opened allowing him to watch the entire fight. "I'm not sure how you managed to slip in the front doors but I'm sure that we'll figure it out sooner or later. Maybe you found a leftover piece of the gem of Amara." The man mused looking the figure over hopefully as if he would give him the answer to the questions he had. Somehow the dark clad figure had slipped in and killed off multiple clients and lawyers. What's more the vampire detection wards still hadn't registered that they were being attacked by a vampire. The system seemed to be fading in and out as if it sensed him and then it didn't. It was only because a member of the security squad had recognized Angel from a previous visit that they knew he was coming. "This is hardly your usual operating style Angel maybe you can tell us what caused you to change your methods." The man noted good naturedly refusing to believe that he was in any danger from the person before him. "It would be nice to know just what it is that sets you off. Or is this about everything that's happened in the past few days?"

"This won't take long." Angel said ignoring the questions as he brought his weapons up and emptied the guns into the faces of the demons. The creatures growled now that they had been blinded by the weapons fire. While they were recovering Angel tossed his jacket to the side and drew a pair of large daggers from his back. Moving forward he engaged the pair he brought his blades up and caught the axes that they were using. Smirking the vampire pushed upward spun away and threw the blades grinning as the two blades slammed into the skulls of demons slicing right through the brains. The vampire knelt down and withdrew the blades and turned to look at the human before him.

Holland still refusing to accept the threat Angel now presented ushered him into his office. "So what can we do for you Angel? Lilah and Lindsay are both working out of the office today. I guess that means that I'll have to be the one to deal with you."

"I wasn't really interested in them today anyways." Angel returned to the man. They were more your public faces anyways." They were interrupted as a pair of smaller demons slammed into Angel knocking him to the ground. Angel roared in response as he struggled against the creatures in a surge of power that Holland hadn't known he was capable of he tossed the demons through the window. He panted for a moment standing there in the open window. "See something interesting?" He questioned as he looked at the man who was staring at him in shock as he ignored the sunlight that was streaming into the offices.

"How?" The man questioned as he stared at the vampire.

"Didn't you hear about the change from your bosses?" The former vampire asked in amusement glad to be the one to know more than the law firm for a change.

"No I guess not, I don't suppose that you want to tell me about it?" The man asked hopefully.

"Not happening." Angel said as he pulled a clip out of his jacket pocket and reloaded his gun. "I have got to tell you I like this new way of taking out the bad guys though it has certain advantages." He said as he leveled the gun at the man. "With you and your offices gone Wolfram and Hart will be spending a long time rebuilding." Angel explained to the man. "By the time they get everything back up and running again the new hero should be ready for you."

"I suppose this is where you tell me that you'll see me in hell then?" Holland asked worriedly as he glanced at the gun. This was not the Angel that they knew this was an entirely different being and it worried him. He was not the one in control like he had first thought instead Angel really was the one that was in control.

"Possibly," Angel replied as he squeezed the trigger putting a bullet into the man's chest. The head of special operations fell to the ground scattering all the papers on his desk. Angel smirked as he took a zippo out of his jacket clicked it on and tossed it toward the small wet bar. He waited a moment until he was sure that it lit. He then walked toward an elevator and headed down. He entered a parking garage and went work. Soon all of the various cars were set up he only had to rig one of the cars and the fuel depot down there for everything to be ready a timer. After all that was done he walked out from the underground garage and watched the building. An explosion leaped out from the side of the building and he watched as the building leaned to the side before toppling to the ground.

Angel turned and headed for his car he left the top down and smiled a bit as he saw Kate getting out of her car. She looked at him in disbelief before glancing at the sun then back at him. She looked like she was about to make her way over to him and find out what it was that he was doing but he merely started his car up and placed some old Beatles music into the player and took off. There were other towns with vampire problems. Maybe he would hit Vegas or some other town with a demon population. He kind of liked this instead of reacting to the darkness he would take the fight to them. He would have to be sure that he thanked the Morrigan if he ever saw them again for changing things like that. The only bad part would be the loss of his team but for what he had planned a team might not be all that much help right now.

Valkyrie


	5. Valkyrie

**Valkyrie**

The Potter characters belong to JKR while Valkyrie is a Marvel Comics character

* * *

A figure in robes with blonde hair flying behind them soared across the skies happily flitting through the various clouds on a broom. The person was an athletic tan looking witch with brown eyes. The young witch who was known as Katie Bell the youngest of the Gryffindor Chaser Threesome, and a survivor of the Voldemort War. She was amongst those that could proudly lift her head and say that she had been there. As a muggleborn witch there hadn't been a whole lot of chances of her slipping through the cracks that the ministry had been making. She wouldn't have bet a copper galleon on her living through it all if it hadn't been for her friends hiding her. She had known Umbridge and knew what was more than likely to happen to her if she reported to the toad woman. She wasn't going to let that happen to her and had fled to the friends that she knew that she could count on. Of course there was only so long that real Gryffindors could hide and wait. Oliver had brought the team and a few others together and they had survived, then they had all gone to Hogwarts to take part in the battle when the twins called them. Now life was different though, there were no more fights to fight right now. She didn't have to worry about the Death Eaters anymore. Now they all had a chance to get on with their lives.

Katie was currently going over her options for that as well. As a member of the D.A, and a fighter for the battle of Hogwarts she had been offered posts in both the Aurors and the hit wizards. She had also gotten a couple of offers from some of the Quidditch teams in Europe, the final offer she had was one from a magical ranch that raised Pegasus horses. The woman that owned the ranch usually decided if she would take you in as an apprentice in three years. If she made the cut she would study under the Janna Morgan, a Beast Mistress and one of the Best DADA and transfiguration experts in Europe. She was one of the eight registered Anmanguses in England. Oliver thought she should join him at Puddlemere, Angelina wanted her to join the Silver Arrows. A lot of people were joining the Aurors and then there was the ranch job. They were all so tempting, and all had so much promise the fact was she had to decide though and soon. None of the offers would stay open very long and she would have to make a choice, or she would lose out on all of them.

She was distracted from her musings though as a roar sounded from down below and a stream of fire narrowly missed her. Looking down the young woman noticed that a large dragon was currently in combat with several cloaked and armored figures that were hurling glowing balls of energy at it. The girl hovered for a minute as she watched the attack happen to the creature. One of its wings had a couple of small holes in it grounding the beast and they were still taking potshots at it. The skin was turning an ugly shade in a few spots and it was obvious that the magical resistant hide was not going to last much longer. Gathering up her courage Katie sent a few stunners at the group. While she saw them hit they all bounced off. "Shield cloaks." She grumbled, as she saw the group turn wondering what she should do to Fred and George for creating those things. Her mind flashed back to the memory that only one of them was still alive. That was all she had time to think of though as the group broke apart part of them continuing to fight the dragon while a couple of them kept her pinned in the air. Katie responded with several various maneuvers that six years of Quidditch had taught her. The attacks were about the size of quaffles and she had long since learned how to anticipate where those would end up being. Some of the blasts were uncomfortably close, but she managed to stay out of the way. She upped the amount of power she was using in her wand using wide angle slicing hexes to hurt them instead. As she dodged one blast though she pointed her broom straight up and dodged most of a blast. The tail of her broom caught fire though and she was now spiraling out of control. The witch grimaced as she aimed the broom toward the ground. Harry had made flying out of control brooms look so much easier. She thought as she finally crashed to the ground. She looked at her broom sadly. It was gone, the broom that she had gotten as a second year was gone. Growling in anger the witch brandished her wand and pointed it at the unknowns and let all sorts of spells shoot out. Against a regular witch or wizard they would have been brought down under such an assault.

Katie realized she wasn't facing a regular witch or wizard though when one of them seemed to just appear in front of her. It wasn't apparatting that it used as there were no pops or cracks. No this was entirely different as the person seemed to just disappear and reappear. Her eyes got big and she stopped casting spells as she gazed at him in disbelief. The thing before her wasn't even human as it had scales all over it. Before she could cast another spell she was back handed. She cried out as she slammed into a rock.

"I do not know what you think you are doing here human, but that is enough." The creature snarled at her. It held its hand up and several claws popped out and it took another swing at her. Katie squealed as she felt the claws knick her in the side as she went rolling away. She looked down and saw that there was very little damage the creature had judged wrong on its strike thanks to her robes. The robes were now sliced nearly in half now she thought as she looked up and with her wand in both hands banished the creature away from her. She was relieved as she watched it go flying away. She stumbled to her feet and shrugged out of the remnants of her robes. She didn't think that she would be lucky enough for a second miss by the claws. She fired several spells at the creature as it began climbing to its feet. The creature didn't even bother to block as it seemed to disappear it reappeared behind Katie and grabbed her wand arm. The witch reached out with her other arm and tried to hit it but it was like hitting a tree and she heard a cracking sound as her hand connected. She tried kicking and kneeing it but that just seemed to annoy it. The creature looked at her with contempt and squeezed her arm. The witch whimpered a bit and then there was a crack as her arm was broken and her wand fell from her hand. The creature slashed at her again this time taking her in the chest shredding through clothes and skin. The pain was too much for her and she welcomed the blackness that came to her. With a smirk on its face it picked her up by her belt and dragged her towards its companions.

"Why is the human still alive?" One of the others questioned, as it looked at the broken girl at their feet.

"She will do as food for our lord along with any other uses that he may think she has." The demon returned.

"A wise choice my brother." The creature said. "It then turned its attention back to the dragon. All at once now." It ordered and they each created a large ball of energy in their hands and threw them at the charred dragon. They all nodded as they dragon reared its head up and then fell to the ground dead. "Well done brethren, hurry now the portal opens soon and our lord will want his offering." The creatures moved around the dragon and sliced its stomach open reaching in they pulled the heart out. "Perfect." The demon said just as a portal began to open. It started out as a small pinprick but the creatures began pouring their power into it and it quickly turned into a large circle nearly twenty feet high and long. A winged creature uglier and fowler than all of the others stepped forward. It grunted at them as it took the heart from the hands of the leader. It examined the heart and then swallowed it. The creature then turned to face the unconscious witch.

"A youngling that tried to stop us my lord." One of the creatures informed it who nodded as it looked down at the figure.

* * *

Katie found herself in a weird place, she appeared to be on a small island. Around her stood various men and women in Viking armor, or cotton clothes. As she climbed to her feet she noted that her own clothes had changed into simple cotton shirt and shorts with animal skin boots that laced up to her knees. She rubbed her arms together as there was a cold here that was almost as bad as the cold from a dementor. The most interesting part about being here though was that all of the various injuries that she had taken from the creature were now gone. A man as large if not larger than Hagrid stood before her dressed in ancient looking chainmail and animal skins with a large red cloak billowing behind him. He had a head of gray hairs with white strands mixed with them and a beard that came down to his chest. On his head he wore a helmet with large horns, and a giant spear rested in his hands. He was covered in various lines of scars and age and he only had one eye. He sat upon a large silver horse that had eight legs of all things. Behind him an armored man with a giant hammer, and on the other side a woman with some odd type of armor. The pair stood as if waiting for a command.

"Who are you?" The Gryffindor girl questioned him nervously as she tried to take everything in.

The figure looked her over for a moment and Katie felt as if that one eye could penetrate her farther than even the eye of Mad-Eye Moody ever had and she knew there were a lot of girls that had never been comfortable around him. "I am Odin, daughter of Midgard. Lord of the Aesir, Master of Asgard." The figure rumbled at her, the power of his voice seeming to echo though her very being. Katie mouth went dry as she began understanding what she was standing before. "I stood and watched your fight wand waver, and saw within you a true warrior. You do your heritage well daughter. As a descendent of the Norse Lands you have shown the true fire of the warrior spirit that resides within you." He congratulated her. "Against a human opponent you would have won in your battle. You were simply no match physically to battle the creature."

"Yeah but they weren't human." Katie growled angry at how easily she had been beaten by that whatever. "So where am I?" She questioned as she continued to look around.

"You are in Limbo, daughter of Midgard." The Lord of the Aesir informed the girl. "You are but a few moments away from death, and once that happens you shall be taken to the hallowed halls of Valhalla. Perhaps even work someday as one of mine chosen." The God said as he gestured to the warrior woman behind him.

"Dead?" Katie asked ignoring everything else that she had been told. "I'm dead? But I still had so much to do."

Odin flashed her a sad smile. "Aye that you did young one, but the demon and your warrior heart stole those things from you."

"Can you give me another chance against them?" Katie pleaded with him.

Odin nodded at her. "That I can daughter of Midgard, that I can. However, to do so will mean a sacrifice on your part." He warned her before she thought that this was a free offering. "To allow this to happen your new life will belong to me. You shall be my warrior in the world. When the call comes for battle you will be expected to be amongst those on the front line. Battle shall be your life from now on young one."

Katie considered this for a moment she was only 18 nearly 19 and he was warning her about what her life could be. "Like I have lot of choice as it is now?" The witch growled still wanting a chance to go at those creatures. "What were those bloody things anyways?"

"Ah, you ran across a small pack of demons summoning a demon lord. I sense your fire young one even in the cold clutches of death I sense your fiery fury." Odin seemed to be considering something as if he was making a decision. He finally began talking though as he made his choice. "Brunnhilde, prepare to merge with this one. He commanded. "I do believe that she has your spirit."

"As you say my lord." The warrior woman said as she came to stand in front of the young witch. "Prepare yourself warrior maiden, for power like you have not felt before."

Katie nodded and looked at the woman as she raised her hands in the air. The figure was several inches taller than her and was a lot more intimidating than she though. The air got even colder and Katie watched a ring of blue fire now surrounded them. "My power shall be your power young one." The woman said, and then she to burst into blue flames. Katie yelped as she watched the flames wash over her own body. She didn't feel the agony that should have come though instead she felt stronger more aware. The witch opened her eyes and saw that the flames had died and the warrior woman was gone. All that was left of where she had been was her armor. Katie looked down and saw that her form had changed she was taller and judging from the way that the clothes she wore strained against her she now had a much fuller figure.

"And so rises the newest of my Valkyrie." Odin said with a proud smile, as he looked at the girl. "Dwarves attend her, work your magic's. Katie looked down as six dwarves came out of the shadows. A new fire seemed to rise from the ground. The armor was casually tossed into the fire and then the group began tracing symbols on the young woman's skin. Katie bit back a growl at some of the places that they touched, but a look from Odin had her standing still. After they were finished the dwarves turned to Odin who examined each of the runes himself. As the God of Magic and Runes it made since that he would inspect the work the witch thought, unsure how she had known this information.

"Let us do our magic then." Odin cried. "Hel, Balder, Hiemdell, Tyr, attend to me!" Four figures stepped forward as he called them. One was in heavy armor and with a quietness that Katie couldn't believe. This was Hiemdell guardian of the rainbow bridge. Another was also dressed in full armor but he was missing an arm that was Tyr, the God of battle. The next was a man that seemed to radiate light except for the small dart that seemed to be lodged in his throat. This was Balder god of light the invincible god who had only one weakness. Finally there was a young girl who seemed to have a foul odor to her. This was Hel mistress of the underworld those who died without honor were sent to her. Each of the Gods poured their power into the pit and flames rose from the pit. The flames wrapped around her and she looked down at herself. A black chain mail dress now adorned her form over the chain mail she wore a chest plate that had a feather design to it, a large silver belt with a buckle that was so large that it protected her stomach, on her head a helmet rested on her head she felt the wings that protruded from the helmet her hair had been separated into two warrior braids that rested on either side of her head. On her forearms she had silver bracers with the symbol of the raven on them. Metal boots that came up to her knees with the raven symbol also adorned her feet. To top everything off, a royal blue cloak was added over her shoulders.

"Amazing." Katie breathed as she moved around and felt the flexibility of the armor she now wore.

"We are not quiet done my Valkyrie." Odin told the girl. Katie/Valkyrie turned to look at the Lord of the Aesir and saw a dragon form behind him. "The one you risked your life for died despite your noble efforts, it is now your duty to avenge him. He would give you a gift though before he passes. His scales added a layer of protection to your armor; he also gives you one of his fangs." The dragon opened its mouth and a large fang dropped into the fire. Odin raised his hands again and fired a magical pulse into the fire pit. The dwarves withdrew a weapon. Katie saw a sword rise from the flames. "I give you the Dragonfang blade my warrior. Now go, your steed awaits for you on the other side to join with you in battle."

Katie nodded and bowed once to the Gods before she disappeared into the mist.

* * *

Katie groaned and opened her eyes. She saw a large demon lord standing over her a feral grin on its face. Glaring back she slammed her fist to the ground and a flash of light hid her from them when the light faded there stood a fully armored Valkyrie. "Lord Odin sends his greetings and say that you are not welcome here demons." The Valkyrie snarled as she drew a sword from her side.

"So the rumors are true, the Ancient Ones stir once again." The demon lord growled. "I have no fear of your weakling master though, and shall show you what I do to those that would try and tell me how to do things." The demon growled at her as it rose to its full hight and flared its wings.

"My lord, allow me." The demon that had beaten Katie before requested. "I brought her down before; I would like to try my might against her as she now is."

"Very well young one, I shall grant you this boon." The demon said as he stepped back to let the two fight it out.

The two didn't say anything they merely moved at each other. Valkyrie with her sword at the ready; while the demon bared its claws. As they passed each other they could all hear the scratching sound the claws made on the armor as they failed to break though. The demon on the other hand grunted as the blade turned into his chest killing it. Valkyrie turned to face the other demons. The lower level demons all glared at the young armored figure and fired their energy orbs at her. Katie moved out of the way of some and deflected others back at them. She looked up as the winged demon lord was the only one left of the group.

"Go back from where you came from creature, and you shall have no fight with me." Valkyrie said as she gestured with her blade toward the portal that was still hanging open.

"I think not little demi god. Despite your power you are still no match for me." The demon said confidently as it flared its wings. It held its arm out and a whip of fire appeared. Flapping its wings it rose into the air and began snapping its whip at her.

Valkyrie dodge and rolled as she did her best to stay ahead of the whip several times the whip managed to leave small burn marks on her skin. She remembered that Odin had said something about a steed. Raising her fingers to her lips she let out a shrill whistle and a creature dive bombed the demon lord distracting it. Valkyrie moved away from the rock and watched as a dark form kept the demon lord from focusing on her. She was about to move on and look for another attack method when she felt herself kick something. Looking down Katie smiled as she saw her wand roll a few feet away. Grinning she picked the wand up, remembering the Battle of Hogwarts she took her wand and placed her magical tool within the hilt of her sword. The blade just slid into the butt of her sword. She took a few swings before she pointed her blade at the creature and muttered fired several curses and watched as her sword glowed and then fired the spells. The demon lord roared and Valkyrie let loose another whistle and summoned her steed to her. She watched as her steed landed in front of her. A large black Pegasus was there for her to mount. The creature had no saddle but did have a bridle in which she could steer the horse. She ran and leaped onto its back and with a clicking sound she felt the steed run. She eyed the demon and then took to the sky. She swung around and began firing curses as she charged at the demon lord. The creature responded by sending fire balls back at her, which the Pegasus bravely and skillfully dodged. As they got closer to each other Katie had an idea that it was almost Potter worthy. Remembering tales of how Harry had distracted a troll in the bathroom as she passed by the demon lord she leaped from her Pegasus and landed on the back. With her sword out she slammed the blade into its back. The demon howled and its wings stopped flapping as her bade tore through sensitive muscles. She pushed off and barreled toward the ground only for her Pegasus to nimbly come beneath her and pull up. The demon wasn't so lucky as it slammed to the ground.

Katie ushered her steed down and then as they landed she slid off the back and took up a defensive position. The demon cut loose with a steam of fire and Valkyrie brought her blade up to block the attack. Sword and fire warred with each other for a moment before the flames faltered and Valkyrie rushed forward. With a swing of her sword its flame arm was now lying on the ground. Coming back around she was met by the flaming whip which caught her on the cheek. It then cracked again wrapping around her waist. She was lifted off of the ground and swung around before a twist of the wrist released her and sent her slamming in the ground. She rose to her feet and sent several spells at the creature that roaored in response as the wounded it. The whip lashed out again catching her around the hands and she was jerked off her feet again and was flying toward the demon lord. She was met by an open fist that split her open. As she fell to the ground she received several kicks.  
The demon stood over with a laugh as it believed that it had won. As it became distracted she moved in her sword held high in her hand. "For Odin!" SHe cried out as she gutted the demon lord that had the dragon sacrificed just so that it could enter this world. It was shocked as it pushed her away despite the blade now stuck in its gut.

Valkyrie panted a few times as she watched the demon try and rise but her sword had wounded it beyond repair and with a hard kick that sent the demon flying she stopped it from rising again.

She held out her hand and the sword glowed for a moment before pulling itself free from the body of the demon. She sheathed the sword and then leaped back on top of her Pegasus. She needed some time to figure out what she was going to do now. The magical ranch was probably the safest spot for her to train her new abilities with tight now. She could work out in the fields and train her skills better than she could if she was under the observation of others. As a Qudditch player or an Auror she would be a forced to choose between her calling and her job. As a ranch hand though she would be far away from people and she wouldn't have to worry about what happened as there would be fewer people for her to disapoint. She hadn't thought that this was how she would decide but at least she had made her choice on that matter she just had to figure out what she was going to tell her friends when they learned that not only had her broom been destroyed but she wouldn't be joining them out on the pitch like they had hoped. She had bigger things to worry about now she thought as she prepared herself.

* * *

Always thought that the team was an under used group.


	6. Fire

The Hp characters belong to JKR while the Fire character belongs to D.C comics

* * *

Hermione Jane Granger sighed as she looked down at the land before them wondering how they had gotten here. When she and Harry had left it had been for the greater good. Harry had to decide how he was going to deal with his new power and Hermione had to go and get her parents out from the land down under. The trip hadn't been all that interesting really they pair of them had managed to make the trip from England to Australia with little problem. It had been relaxing when you considered everything that they had been through in the past year. After nearly four years they had finally beaten Voldemort and could start having regular lives. That at least had been the plan.

Harry had not been able to get a break though and had been forced to take in a power that would help him beat Voldemort unfortunately by doing so he pledged himself as the defender of the land for all eternity. The pair of them had left Harry because he had to understand what it was that he had become and what it now meant for him. Hermione on the other hand had only wanted to get her parents back after everything that had happened. They had retrieved them. While her parents had given mixed reactions they had been glad that she was safe she had then been grounded for the next month and told she had to stay at home, no wand, no magic books, and no owls were allowed during that time. The parents had then turned around and done the same to a chuckling Harry who had suddenly found himself in one of the spare rooms. Caring for her like a sister seemed to have backfired for the young wizard. The only magic allowed was Harry's transformations as Harry needed to practice. Her father a former triathlon winner had taken great joy in putting Harry through his paces. While Harry was practicing Hermione had to keep notes and when he trained without powers Hermione wasn't spared from her father's near sadistic physical training. While he couldn't teach them much about fighting he could teach them a lot about exercise. Despite all of that Hermione had been happier than had been in a long time. Even if she had lost the right to make any choices about day to day life when her mother caught her trying to sneak by with one of her text books. Hermione had found herself stuck being supervised in the kitchen or their clinic for several hours after that one. Turned out potions and cooking were not the same unless it was soup or stew and she couldn't do much beyond those.

After that had been done and they had been allowed their wands back. It had also been where they would be parting ways. Harry had decided on heading back to England and finding out what it was that he was meant to do. The Grangers on the other hand had found themselves spending most of their time on a cruise where Hermione wasn't allowed to use any magic. They were currently stopping over in a small village merely enjoying themselves. Hermione would love to find a way to owl her friends, but didn't know of any nearby magical communities. She knew that their friends were worried and now that everyone thought that Harry was still dead it was all the worse for some of them. She didn't agree with Harry on wanting everyone to believe he was still dead but her parents thought that it was a smart thing to do at least until he decided how he was going to deal with everything that had happened to him. Hermione had merely clucked her tongue at all of them but refrained from saying anything else to any of them on the subject.

She looked around the village and saw that they were at peace she looked over her shoulder and stared at the beach that seemed to stretch forever. She turned the other way and looked out into the ocean thinking of everyone and thing that she had gained and lost over the past several years. She found a rock to sit on and merely enjoyed herself. She was wearing a one piece bathing suit and a pair of cut off short sand had a windbreaker that hid her wand and kept the cold morning air out. Her mind went back to one of the last conversations she had with Harry.

_"What's on your mind?" Hermione questioned as the pair leaned against a tree._

_"A couple of things, one of which is this." Harry said as he held the elder wand up in his hand and looked at her intently._

_"Well let's sit down then." Hermione said, as the pair slid down and sat at the base of the tree. "Now, what's the problem?"_

_Harry took a deep breath before starting. "Mione, are you sure that you want to keep coming along with me like this?" He questioned her as he stared at her intently. "I mean what about Hogwarts or getting a job in the Ministry? There are so many things that you could be doing." He told her. "I don't want you to regret coming with me anymore than you already do."_

_"Well Harry, that would require me regretting coming with you in the first place." Hermione pointed out to him with a smile. "And I don't happen to regret that since it managed to save the world by doing it."_

_"Yeah, but now your free you don't have to do this anymore. You can be free of all this." Harry tried to point out to her. "I may be stuck with saving the world and all that but you can go back to Ron if you want to and fix things with him. He may be mad at you for a while for leaving like you did but eventually he'll calm down like he always does."_

_"Maybe someday you can do the same thing with Ginny." The witch returned to him. "Besides, I don't think that we should think too much about that right now with everything else that is going on. Let's just enjoy this vacation."_

_Harry sighed and shook his head a rueful grin on his face. "You're really not going to go anywhere are you?" He questioned her._

_"No Harry I'm not." She said giving him a glare. "So you might as well accept the fact that I'm coming with you and if you even think about trying to run away on me then I will find you." She assured him with a deadly glint in her eyes that promised pain if she had to do that._

_"Fine, if you insist on following me all over the place then I want you to take the elder wand then." Harry said as he twirled the elder wand around in his hand._

_"You can't be serious, it's in much better hands with you." She argued back at him. "Look at everything that you have. You have all of the power you need to deal with anything."_

_"But the magic of the wand makes it so much more dangerous for me though." Harry returned to her. "If I get beaten and lose the wand what then? The sword and staff will only slow whoever has it down a bit. Voldemort almost beat me and that was when the wand wasn't at full power. If he had full control he might have beaten me and you know it. I'm going to be dragged into a lot of fights and you seem determined to follow me that means if we were to level the playing field a bit and give you the wand then you could be the long range person while I deal with the close up stuff."_

_Hermione sniffed at him. "I happen to be perfectly happy with my wand." She said primly as she gestured to the vine wood and unicorn hair wand that she wore. "I have no need for another one."_

_"Yeah, well I'm happy with my wand to." Harry told her as he pointed at his holly wood and phoenix feather wand. "Face it Mione, if what we're facing is on the level of Voldemort again I want you to be able to defend yourself to the best of your ability. If you combine your spell knowledge and the power of the elder wand you'd be near unstoppable." Harry tried as he looked at her hopefully._

_"No Harry, for all we know it could be magnifying your staff's powers." Hermione said stubbornly. "You need to keep it."_

_"What if I said you couldn't come with me if you didn't take the wand?" He shot off glaring at her._

_"Then I would track you and we know that I could. You're not exactly discreet at time." She returned to him smugly while he glared at her. The argument had continued for days until a frustrated Harry had left back for home and she stayed with her parents and went on a cruise giving them both a chance to decide on their next move. The pair were equally stubborn and neither of her parents had joined the argument making it so that their last conversation was very heated. Harry had left for England a few days later while Hermione spent time with her parents. Harry telling her that they would talk about this again when they got back together._

She was broken out of her memories by the sound of stomping. Heading toward the village were five men each of them were dressed in large furred coats. As she watched them she realized that she knew only two people as large as these two were. Hagrid and Madame Maxine and the only reason that these two were as tall as they were was because they had giant blood in them. As she watched them though she noticed that there was something odd about them each of them had what looked like white beards but as they got closer Hermione noticed that this was really ice and that they looked like they had slightly blue skin. "What are they?" She asked herself as stood up to get a better view of them.

"They look like they're half giants, but why do they have blue skin?" Hermione muttered to herself as she looked at the group.

Each one seemed to stop at certain spots and then raised their legs and slam them into the ground. Everything seemed to shake as the men began stomping their feet. As the five figures slammed their feet to the ground the earth shook. She turned away from watching though as she began erecting muggle repelling, and notice me not wards to the area hoping that they would be enough to keep the people away. The wards wouldn't keep people distracted for long though as the giants seemed intent on creating an earthquake. With no ministry officials around it looked like it was down to her. She really wished Harry hadn't gone off now as this sounded like just the sort of thing that he would have been good for. The creatures had stopped their stomping and had opened their mouths and ice snow and wind blew out of their mouths.

"They must be part frost giant." She noted to herself as she tried to think up a spell that would affect the creatures. A giant already had a magically tough hide. Hagrid who was part mountain giant was proof of that as she recalled watching spells bounce off of him. What was not well known about giants was that different ones had different abilities. Mountain giants had a connection to the forest and the beasts in them. It was partly why Hagrid had trouble distinguishing dangerous animals since his connection and tough hide made it difficult for him to understand. A frost giant on the other hand lacked the empathic connection to the forest. Instead they had the ability to manipulate the cold which included blizzard breath. At the rate that they were breathing the town would be stuck as an ice statue in a matter of moments. The witch tried to think of a way to stop this. The frost giants wouldn't take much to stop her once they decided to deal with her. Still she had to try. Lifting her wand she realized that Harry had been right the Elder wand would have made a job like this so much easier. "Phoenixiues!" She shouted and three small fire birds erupted from her wand and headed toward the forming ice statue.

One of the giants took notice of her incoming attack and shifted its position before blowing at the creatures. Hermione watched as the trio of fire birds was blown out. Hermione now had one of the giants attention and began shooting fire based spells at the creature. It reasoned that anything that was ice based might not respond well to fire spell. As the spell zoomed forward a wall of ice rose up blocking the spell as it slammed uselessly into the wall.

"Naughty, naughty trying to use my friends as kindling." A voice sing songed down at her. Hermione turned to look at an elderly figure in white furred robes, a crown made from diamonds or ice, and large wand that looked like it had also been carved from ice in their hand. All of these rich things didn't change the ugliness that the woman had.

"Who are you?" Hermione questioned as she got herself ready for yet another fight. The ability to make the ice around them change shapes so fast was probably just a hint of the power that this figure had.

"Why I guess you can call me the Ice Queen." The figure returned. "For over a thousand years have my kind been looked down on by pretty little magic users like you. The time of the so called magical creatures is upon us once again. We shall rise above you and destroy those that stand in our way."

"Not another one of you." Hermione groaned as she looked at the hag before her. "Why can't you all just get along instead of trying to fight everything out? I just got done with one war and have other plans right now, do you really need to draw me into you're wars all the time?"

Hags were classified as magical beings despite the fact that they were once witches. They were witches who played with magic's that took a drain on the body or changed them in some way usually to the weakening of the body were classified as hags. The spells and rituals that did this were often dark in nature however the changes in the body also made it so that the various governments classified hags as magical beings. One had to be careful as several of them were a lot more powerful than your average witch.

"It's time to die little pretty witch." The hag snarled as she waved her wand and several ice shards came flying out of her wand.

Hermione raised a shield that stopped the ice shards before she fired a stunner back at the hag. The hag created a shield of reflective ice and knocked the spell away before she sent a gust of wind that banished the shield at Hermione. The witch dove to the side and came back up with an incindio. Another wall of ice rose countering the fire spell and then broke apart sending more ice shards at her. Hermione waved her wand and banished the ice back at the hag. While the hag blocked the return fire Hermione cast a warming charm on herself she was by no means dressed for ice spells or fighting right now. The ground around her began iceing up and Hermione gave a grudging nod or respect. She had lost her maneuverability and the ability to create fire on the ground around her as easy. She waved her wand and several of her miniature phoenixes came out of her wand and rushed the hag. The woman stopped her attacks to shoot beams of cold at the fire birds. She shot another spell and it managed to catch the witch on the shoulder leaving a small bit of ice crust and a cold feeling on her shoulder.. Hermione returned with several curses that the witch seemed to almost casually dodge. The witch was tiring her wand arm felt like lead when she looked down at it she watched in shock as the ice patch on her shoulder had grown and now covered her entire shoulder. She yanked her jacket off and threw it to the side while the hag merely cackled at her.

"Is it getting to warm for you dear, perhaps I can cool you off." While Hermione had been taking her jacket off the hag had set a trap up, An ice dome appeared to be forming with the young witch on the inside. Hermione remembered a spell she had learned to fight inferi and a circle of flame rose up. While the circle rose she cast another spell and created several of her small blue bell fireballs that she had learnt in first year. As she watched the ice dome close in she saw that the half giants were surrounded her and were adding their power onto that of the dome spell. Soon a thin layer of ice covered the entire dome and Hermione knew that she was in trouble. She fired a few reductos at the wall but as soon as she made the wholes thary would seal themselves back up. Her fire would only last so long before it lost its strength against the cold. She tried to breath warmth into her hands as she poured more power into the spell. Now would be a nice time to have Harry or the elder wand. She wondered if this is what her friend had meant when he had told her it would dangerous and that she needed the wand. With that wand she could have melted this dome and then melted the hag's wand. Instead she was stuck here facing off against the cold instead of the person controlling the cold. As she tried to think she almost didn't notice as all of her bluebell flames merged into one giant fireball without her giving it the command to do so. She watched as first the fireball and then the fire ring all changed from blue to green. The fire ball then rose to her eye level and began to change first it got bigger and then grew arms and legs. Soon Hermione was standing before a creature of pure fire.

"Greetings daughter of fire." The fire creature said the flames seemed to widen and suddenly Hermione found herself someplace else. Standing tall above them was a tall woman. Behind and hovering around her shoulders four human shaped items hovered. One was the fire creature that had brought her here, another was one that was made of water, the third appeared to be made of clouds, the final one appeared to be a giant rock like figure.

"Hello Hermione, I'm sorry you had to join us like this." The tall woman said. She made a gesture and seemed to shrink down quite a bit until she was only as tall as Hagrid. The four creatures shrunk as well so that they were still standing with the figure.

"Who are you?" Hermione said somewhat fearfully as she considered all the power that this person seemed to have. "What are you?" Hermione she continued asking the figure as her mind raced around trying to figure out what had happened. She had cast the spell to create the balls of fire however she had not cast or altered the spells to give the fire this shape or personality nor did she know why she seemed to be conversing with this unknown woman.

"I am Gaia, the spirit of Nature you might say." The woman returned to the witch. "You may have heard of me under another name I have also gone by the name of Mother Nature before. These are my servants the four elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth." She said waving toward the figures that hovered behind her. "Things have changed in the balance of the world, and a new avatar for the power of the element of fire is needed and I have chosen you to be the new wielder of the power of fire."

"Why me?" Hermione asked.

"Because you have already dedicated yourself to the fight I do not wish to pick a host that is unwilling to do their duty. You are also all that I could ask for in a fire avatar. Your light burns fierce and bright you protect the weak, shine light on knowledge, and guide the weary traveler. What more could one want in a champion?" Gaia asked the young witch before her.

Hermione's eyes narrowed at the spirit. "What's really going on, why the sudden need for heroes and champions? Why are we getting the power to help people now instead of during the war? Is there something going on that you're not telling us?"

"The balance had not been altered as of yet young one. The scales tip now though and we must repair it so that we may still have a world. The time to discuss all of the damages is not now. Will you fight like you told your companion? Here is the power I offer you I offer you the power of fire." Gaia returned to the girl.

"It's either that or death isn't it?" Hermione questioned suspiciously. "You have a most interesting timing you know."

"You will freeze if you don't accept," the figure responded ignoring the questions and observations that the witch was making.

"What do I get out of it?" Hermione asked grudgingly as she realized her questions weren't going to be answered.

"The power of fire, accept my power over this element and you shall be able to become fire as you need it. The comic book hero in the world known as Fire, started out as a being of magical power as this beings source of power is mystical it shall be enough to allow me to give you the power you need if you should take it."

"I have no choice," Hermione returned in annoyance, "I either to accept the offer or die and I can't die without at least doing everything possible."

"So, do you accept my power and the responsibilities that come with the gift?" The Spirit of Nature questioned her.

"You haven't told me what those responsibilities are." Hermione pointed out as she tried to stall for time and think of another way out of this mess.

"True daughter I have not. The flames lower though, the time is short I cannot tell you all. You're duties shall be to protect the Earth from those that harm her seldom shall I come to you with other duties other than to protect the world."

"But you will from time to time have me perform missions and jobs where you think that they need to be by me." Hermione said as she considered what it was that Mother Nature said.

The Elemental flinched at this. "Indeed daughter, do you accept? I need your answer now."

"Very well, I accept your offer." Hermione said as she braced herself for whatever it was that was going to happen next. The one silver lining in this that she could see was that she would be better able to help Harry now.

"Good," Mother Nature said she ushered the fire elemental forward and the small creature began flying around and around in a circle around the witch until a small tornado of flames seemed to rise from the ground. While the flames spun fire was absorbed into the body of Hermione Granger. The witch gasped as she felt the power enter her body. As the flames were absorbed she didn't even notice that her body was changing with everything else. When the last of the flames were absorbed by the witch her entire body had changed. Hermione had always been what one would consider average but the fire seemed to change her in ways that she never would have guessed. While she would never be mistaken for a Veela she might be mistaken for a model as her body had grown and filled out in all of the right places and her hair had gone from a frizzy mess to full of locks of slightly curly hair. Go now and stop this being from destroying the balance of the world. Mother Nature ordered.

The witch nodded as she felt herself return to the ice dome. Her fire ring was almost down. Raising her hand Hermione felt the fire within her at her mental command her body burst into green flames. She watched as flames erupted out of her hand and blasted away at the top of the dome. She then rose into the air and turned to look at her opponent.

The Ice Queen stared in disbelief as the meddling little witch managed to craft a fire spell that sent a young fiery looking woman at her. If she had to guess she would say that she was dealing with a fire nymph. She didn't know how that young witch had created or summoned this creature but she was going to destroy it. With a snarl she waved her wand and several ice spikes flew forward. The fire creature raised its hand and fired back blasts of flame that turned the icicles into steam. The Hag snarled as she began firing other spells at the creature that began flying around in the air or melting her attacks. None of the spells seemed to hit her. The figure also began firing streams of fire at her giants work turning ice into water. Stop that thing the hag ordered. The half-giants nodded and began firing their own blasts of cold at the figure. The creature merely began flying back and forth dodging the blasts of cold or responding with fire balls or flame blasts.

The fire being finally seeming to have enough began really attacking though. As the flames began connecting with the half-giants, the creatures roared in pain but were slowly edging away as they had no use for fighting something that could so casually hurt them. Steam began rising from their bodies as the protective ice that shielded them from the world began to melt. "Fall back!" One of them finally commanded the others. "She will destroy us at this rate." It turned to glare at her. "We shall remember you." It growled before it released a barrage of icicles at the fire creature while its clan turned and ran. The fire creature couldn't dodge the blast so returned fire. While it focused on the heavy blast it was hit from the side by the Ice Queen.

"You ruined everything!" The hag yelled at the creature. "Do you know what I had to do to get them to follow me out here? They were but the start of the army of ice and you drove them all away."

"That's just too bad." Hermione returned as she climbed to her feet and then hovered a couple feet off the ground as she faced off against the most dangerous of the group. She eyed the woman and saw that this one was just as crazy as Lestrange had been.

"I'll show you bad you pest! Powers of the artic I summon you bring me a champion." After that she muttered several things in a language Hermione didn't know and fired into the ocean. The shore line covered in ice and then cracked and Hermione watched as a creature made of ice strode out of the sea.

"Great, an ice golem." Hermione grumbled in disbelief. She had driven off one set of goons only to have a more powerful soldier to now confront her. She worked on staying out of the creatures way one punch missed her and shattered the stones on the shore. She fired a few balls of fire but the creature mere shrugged the blasts off. While they did damage they didn't do enough to harm it either. Hermione was busy trying to think up another attack when she was surprised by its speed and grabbed. Her fire began to flicker as the ice began to try and douse her flames.

The hag smiled as she what the flames were doing. Good she said swallow her destroy her for good she commanded. Nodding the Golem opened its mouth and tossed her into its mouth.

Hermione scowled as she felt around most of her flames had gone out except for the flame on her hair she looked around as she tried to figure a way out of this mess. She didn't have a long time in here before the cold took away the last of her strength. As she looked around her arctic prison she kicked the tongue in anger. She smiled though as she remembered something though. A golem got its power from the magical papers that were written under its tongue. She didn't have the strength to cover her body in flames however she did have another power. Before the comic book character that her powers were based on could cover her body in flames she could only shoot flames another way. Kneeling down she looked at the tongue before taking a deep breath and letting flames spew out of her mouth like a dragon would.

The Hag cackled she had won the little fire bint was dead or as good as inside her ice golem, the witch had probably sacrificed herself to create the fire nymph which meant that she now had this whole town of muggles to destroy. She would show them why it wasn't a good idea to cast aside one of the best spell crafters ever. Hadn't she created an elemental wand? They were supposed to be a myth yet she had managed it and now she would show the world what happened when you messed with a true genius. The Golem made a sound and she turned to look at it and watched in horror as its body slouched over and then flame erupted from its mouth and out stepped the fire nymph. "You!" She snarled as she looked at the remains of her golem. It had taken her years to craft that golem and even longer to create a spell that would freeze an area so that she could summon it.

The fire nymph smirked as it erupted into flame and took to the air. Lets finish this. The nymph said.

Fine! The Hag growled as she summoned a wave of ice at the nymph.

Hermione rushed the hag and formed the fire in her hands she focused on her taget and fired several small shots and two large one she then pulled up away from the hag before the ice wave got to her.

The hag laughed as she rose a shield of ice from the ground the small fireballs that hit it were weak perhaps the creature was nearly done the next one though was much more powerful and shattered her ice shield. The hag rose her wand to create another one when another fireball appeared and hit her wand. The hag screamed in fury as the wand she had crafted was melted away. Do you have any idea what you've done? She shouted up at the fire nymph.

I have a fair idea. The fire Nymph returned before shooting up even higher. Now enjoy the fruits of your creations she said.

The hag turned and saw the wave of ice she had summoned was still coming only now it was uncontrolled and without her wand she couldn't control it she raised her hands up in fear as it drew near there was no time to try and out run it. "Noo!" She cried out as the wave slammed into her. When the wave fell it damaged a number of houses but they were still standing and the people that had lived in them were still safe. Hermione landed and canceled her flames. She looked down at a piece of ice and her eyes widened in shock her once bushy hair was now curly and instead of the brown that she remembered of her hair and eyes they were now a shade of green that matched her flames or Harry's eye color her body had grown and she realized that she was going to need new clothes her current outfit though was nice It was comprised of a leather jacket a t-shirt that showed her stomach leather pants and boots with a golden belt.

"Very nice princess." Daniel Granger said as he came out from hiding brushing the ice off of himself.

"Dad?" She said in surprise.

"Yes of course sweetheart like I was going to let you face that thing alone." Dan said to her." I was just waiting till you needed my help as a medic". Hermione smiled as she fell into her dad's arms. "Looks like you found your own power and wore yourself out." Dan said with a smile as he carried her to the ship. "Looks like we'll need to start you on your own training program though." He said to her with a smirk that his sleeping daughter never even heard.

* * *

Yes I based my Mother Nature/Gaia character off of Gaia from Captain Planet.

Oddly enough Hermione was the hardest character to find powers for. She's not a brawler so giving her super human strength would have been stupid besides everyone else on the team had that to some degree. So fining long range attack was hard.


	7. fight, fight, fight!

A figure looked down into the hole that he had found that was the result of years of research and preparation. They had finally found what they needed to make sure that everything was right. The ones who had been in charge of the project had unfortunately died when the vampire with a soul had attacked Wolfram and Hart had destroyed the entire special division and a few nearby ones had been lost as well. For their group it had been an even harder blow than it had been for Wolfram and Hart. To the demonic law office they lost a small section that could be easily replaced for them though they had lost their leader. It had taken nearly a year but after painstaking labor they had reviewed every bit of the research of their fallen brethren and found an alternative method than the one that they had planned. While their plan was doable it had a few risks to it that were unneeded as there were other ways to accomplish their task. Their God had lived in other ways they merely had to use one of these other methods to bring their God back to life.

With this new bit of knowledge in hand the new leader had summoned all of the various followers together from their places in the world so that they could all be there when the time came. Besides each of them had their own skills and gifts to add into the power that their God could draw upon. Their group had wizards, sorcerers, and non magic users all of them dedicated to their God. They had come when the call came no longer having to hide their feelings about the God that they truly served they would bring about their God as all those that had worshipped it had always wanted to. Finding the required sacrifices to use had not been nearly as difficult as the fallen ones had thought that it would be. The guardian and his soldiers had already been dealt with and now they were ready to begin the task that fate and destiny had given unto them. With their work they would bring about a brand new age an age where their God once again ruled as the supreme being throughout the world. The time for their loyalty and the loyalty of all those before them was about to bear fruit and allw them to reap the benefits that came with being loyal.

* * *

Angel was walking along the with a heavy mist already rising from the ground. He was searching or hunting for people who had been captured by what he figured was a supernatural element. Each of these people had been some of the best and brightest in their fields probably being able to give even Willow, Giles and Wesley a run for their money in the book smarts department. The former Scourge of Europe shook his head as he thought of his old life. It was a hard change for him when he considered everything that he had done for the past four years. Buffy and those who had followed her (despite what Cordellia might have said) had shown him the best way to face the darkness. You couldn't hide from the darkness you had to meet it head on. It had taken him some two and half years to really learn that lesson and another year and half for the lesson to become cemented into his brain. The heroes path wasn't easy either he had learned but now he was a different breed of hero. He wasn't the kind of hero Buffy or Cordellia thought that he should be he was his own kind of hero. A part of him wished he could turn back the clock and join them again. His mission was out here though.

The half breed ignored these thoughts though and focused on his current mission. Since his transformation he had taken to living in major cities taking out Master vampires. During one of these hunts to destroy the support structure of one vampire he had come across some of the plans for the people that had been chosen. Each of these people that had been taken had been taken by demon or spell making it a part of his world and business. The odd part about it though was that the people selected were not a part of his world. This meant that they were probably meant to be sacrifices or food. The only thing that they had in common was that each of the people were smart. They had even been taken from different parts of the world. The Day Walker was unaware of their being an organization that operated on such a high level outside of Wolfram & Hart. True he had killed all of his old connections with the law firm but he was always able to find someone from one of the other branch offices that he could pump for information. He had finally found someone who had told him to head here where he would find what he was looking for. He could feel the power in the air whatever was happening this night was going to be very dangerous he just hoped that he was up for the task that was coming. He checked the various weapons he carried on his body one last time before he moved forward wondering if he would actually be able to save any of the people tonight.

The vampire had to dodge a blow as a group of vampire stepped out from behind several old trees. "You shall not pass." The leader said as it twirled its sword around in anticipation.

"I don't have time for you right now." Angel returned to him. "So you can either let me through or I can kill you. Your choice, but make it now."

"You got a lot of guts." The vampire informed him to bad for you they're about to be spilled put all over the ground tonight. The vampire leader growled out.

"Yeah right, you and what army are going to stop me. Those clowns behind you?" Angel mocked the leader with a grin.

The vampire let out a snarl and rushed at him. Angel drew his own broadsword from its sheath beneath his jacket. He slipped to the side as the overhand strike came and let his own blade slip between the ribs of his opponent the two turned around to face each other and charged again. Again Angel casually dodged the blade but this time his blade went high and sliced into the face of the vampire. The vampire stumbled back into the arms of its companions and they could all see where the vampire had lost its eye. "Kill him." The vampire ordered as it tried to hold its face together. The others nodded and strode forward to engage the one who had so casually disabled their leader.

Angel leaped back giving himself some room to fight the group. Sinking his blade into the ground for a minute he reached behind his back and pulled out a pair of sawed off shotguns with pistol grips that had been waiting to be drawn. The vampires laughed as they saw the weapons that didn't have a chance in actually killing them. Taking aim Angel took the heads off of two of the vampires and watched as the arm of another was ripped off as well. The others were peppered with buck shot but that was all. Angel pumped the guns and fired again this time taking the legs out from three of the vampires. Dropping the guns and letting them hang at his side he pulled out a handful of wooden knives taking two more.

"Hold him off." The vampire leader ordered in fear as he looked around at the dust clouds that were starting to settle around them. The vampire released his face and reached into his jacket and pulled out a small stone. "We need help, we're being slaughtered out here." He cried into the stone. It glowed for a moment and then the vampire wasn't worried about what the stone was doing as the sword of one of its minions had been thrown and pinned him into a nearby tree.

"You talk too much." Angel said to him in annoyance as he glared at the vampire.

"It doesn't matter your too late to stop it." The vampire hissed back at him. The message has already been sent. There was a cracking sound and the two looked up to see a door opening and a small army appeared to be walking out. I don't care how many shells you have even you can't have enough to stop all of them. The vampire growled.

"True." Angel said as he staked the vampire. "Doesn't mean I'm not going to try though." He said as he began ejecting the spent shells and thumbing new ones into his guns. As they began to close in the Dhamphir began to open fire on the group. He ignored the potential headshots and went for shots while not as damaging would slow them down more. The former member of the Scourge of Europe coolly began to blow limbs off of the incoming force of vampires who were rushing toward him. He was emotionless as he watched as limbs went flying from the vampires. As the two guns finally clicked on empty chamber he reached up and disconnected the shotguns. He reached into the folds of his jacket and drew a pair of handguns and began firing incendiary rounds into the mass. While they were not as good as maybe a stake through the heart the incendiary round did a good bit of damage to a vampire. The handguns now emptied Angel dropped the weapons and went for the sword it was time to take the fight up close and personal. The former vampire wondered what would happen next as he ran into the group a wooden knife in one hand his sword in the other.

* * *

Katie Bell had been training in the field near the ranch when the call had come to her. Huginn one of Odin's Ravens had come to her. The blonde girl had taken the raven onto her shoulder so that the telepathic bird could communicate with her. "Greetings Valkyrie I bring a message from Father Odin."

"And what is the message friend?" The Champion questioned as she stroked the bird.

The bird leaned into the strokes for a moment before it focused on the girl. "All Father Odin has a mission for you hatchling. There resides in a place not far from here a place of great and terrible energy. Within this place rest the Old Ones. The power they hold is mighty and dark. With their power they could destroy the world. There are fools who think that amongst their numbers are those that would reward them with power if they were to release them. The Morrigan's Champion destroyed their leaders last year yet they have always been a wide spread group and have reformed even stronger than before. Their strength has not been this great in centuries, the weakness that they have is a thing of the past and they must be met with force. They must not be allowed to wake the ones that sleep beneath they must be stopped before they threaten the world and all of its creatures once again. The fools are ready though they have managed to acquire the services of an army that will stand there to stop you. This will be a proving battle for you hatchling. We shall see if your own training you have done will make you the equal to the coming battle."

Katie nodded to the bird. "Very well friend Huginn, if you shall lead the way then I shall follow after you and deal with those that you say have such great strength. We shall see if it is a strength equal to that of the Chosen of the Aesir."

"Then prepare yourself daughter." The bird said as he leapt off her and onto a nearby tree branch.

Katie nodded her head in agreement an order from Lord Odin to head into battle did not come often and it was only the fool that ignored such a summons besides was she not of the Valkyrie? The blonde girl's hand slammed her fist into the ground causing a ring of blue flames to appear around her and cause her casual training clothes to be replaced by her armor. After a quick check to make sure that everything was in place she had summoned the Pegasus that was her to command and mounted up on her steed. She checked her sword Dragon Fang one more time. She then looked at her wand she drew her sword in one hand and her wand in the other. She then stretched her arms apart then brought them together allowing the blade and wand to be pushed together. There was a flash of light and Dragon fang was now prepared for the coming battle. "Lead on friend Huginn!" The blonde commanded as she caused the horse to jump off a small rock out cropping and into the air.

"And off we go!" Huginn said as he took off from his own perch. The two flying animals circled a few times before they headed off.

Katie waited patiently her mind and body preparing themselves for the coming fight. She had mainly trained with her abilities other than battling with the occasional odd demon vampire or other mystical creature that had wandered to close to the land. Her master had trained her in the use of her wand in combat and while she was still a far sight from being on Dumbledore or McGonagall's level she liked to think that she had learned a lot in her time with her Master. Soon she would find out just how much her training had accomplished and how much she still didn't know. The Aesir Champion thought to herself as she urged her horse to go faster.

The two finally found themselves over a graveyard and Valkyrie looked down as she saw the signs of a fight already beginning. "The Champion of the Morrigan has already arrived I see." Huginn noted to her nodding his beak downward. "I wonder how long it will be before the others arrive."

Valkyrie looked down as a figure dressed all in black stood there as well he was charging with a weapon in either hand. She recognized that the army was made up of a creature known as vampires. The army would stop them from making into the caverns and every moment that they were held back though was a longer moment that the sleepers would be given to rise once again.

"Here is where we part Champion of the Aesir. May your blade bring Lord Odin glory. For Asgard and Honor!" Huginn cried out before he banked away from the battle.

"Come on boy." Valkyrie ordered her steed as she drew her sword. "We have a battle to win. Besides, one vs. a thousand seems kind of stupid." The horse nodded its head and dive bombed the force of vampires. Valkyrie had her blade out and as they flew she smiled a bit as the Pegasus slammed its hooves into the heads of some of the vampires. While they weren't killing blows they might knock them out or disable them. The demi-god slid off of her saddle and held her glowing sword in her hand as her mount flew on striking out at vampires as it flew. "Alright who wants to be first?" She questioned as her blade began to emit a silver glow. The vampires hesitated for a moment. The leather clad figure that had been shooting holes in their ranks could still be seen yet he was actually still standing darting in and out of the force of vampires. The moment of hesitation was all that the warrior maiden needed and soon had leaped into the crowd of vampires swing her sword around. She stabbed swung decapitated and moved on. A though towards her blade and a small flame covered the weapon giving it even more power as she continued to move through the army of dead.

"Enough." A large vampire growled as he swung a heavy ax toward the girl that was slicing through them faster than a slayer was capable of.

The blonde twisted out of the way and caught the handle of the ax in her grip with a squeeze she shattered the haft as if it was nothing. "It's going to take a lot more than you to stop me." She snarled back at him as she sliced her blade through his neck and then walked through the cloud of vampire dust to engage the next vampire. Valkyrie growled despite the numbers that she and the other were hitting it wasn't enough and she was slowly but surely being driven away from the entrance that she was trying to get to. She could actually make out what she thought was the other champion as she saw him slicing his own sword through the neck of another vampire. Despite all of their skills and kills though, the two would soon be overwhelmed if they didn't find a way to turn this battle back the other way. She was brought out of her musings as several vampires slammed into her knocking her even farther away from where she wanted to be. At this rate she was never going to make it to where she needed to be.

* * *

Buffy looked up from what she was doing as she felt a breeze of wind. The small city girl had changed and it was in part thanks to the people that had taken over her training. Giles was an amazing man yet he had pretty much reached the limits as to what he could teach her about combat. The lessons that she had learned from the man had been incorporated into her new training. Her new teacher had actually approved and said that it showed a high honor to her teacher. She had moved beyond what Giles could teach though and it was why her combat skills had become somewhat predictable to the world. She was glad though that her new teachers had been able to fix that problem. Hermes had brought her here and then the Messenger God had summoned her teacher. Yanked down from the stars was none other than Chiron, the centaur teacher of all Greek heroes from Hercules to Jason of Corinth. The centaur was wise and skilled in combat and had the strength to stand up to her at Slayer strength and maybe more.

The blonde was currently practicing her skills as a hunter and was in some unknown forest hunting boar for her supper tonight. She had gained power, speed, strength, and a handful of other abilities but she also had the knowledge that the various Greek Pantheon had bestowed her with. Including the skills of those like Artemis, who had given her the knowledge and the skills of the hunter. The former slayer was hardly recognizable as the girl she had been as she was dressed in homemade leather hunting clothes.

She had been forced the hard way to learn that knowing and doing were two different things. She had to train in combat, tracking, languages, philosophy, sciences, and war by the end of her time she was supposed to have an education nearly the equivalent to someone with a degree in sports medicine. She had trained long and hard for the past year making the occasional trip into the real world to deal with various demons or other problems that made themselves known nothing that a Slayer probably couldn't have handled though. The blonde Demigod had even managed to stop a midsized fishing boat from clipping a passenger cruiser by pushing them away from each other. Fortunately no one had seen her though as Chiron had made it clear that she was not ready for the world to know that she existed. Sure the army knew but few others did and it was better to keep it like that. A part of her missed her mom and friends, but she knew that this was the price that she had to pay for the power she now wielded. It didn't make her miss them any less though. The fact that the team had only just gotten back to the way they were right before graduation made it all that much painful, harder, and difficult for her. They had come back together and then she was ripped away from them. Hardly what any of them had really expected after everything that they had done together. The blonde was distracted from her hunt when a flash of light beside her happened and she saw Hermes.

"Great to see you Amazon." The Messenger God greeted her. "Wish I had more time to talk but the sleepers are awakening and you need to get your armored butt down there. If enough of them are woken up they could all of Europe into a wasteland in less than a year and then they would move to the rest of the world. So hurry up and change and I'll lead you there."

Buffy nodded her head as she slammed her bracers together and a blast of light happened and she now stood in her Wonder Woman/ Xena armor as Xander had once called it. With a thought she was in the air and following after Hermes.

The two passed the base camp where they saw Chiron waiting for them the immortal centaur caught the spear as the pair flew by. "Good hunting!" The centaur roared out to them as they then zipped away. The small island near Greece soon was nothing but a speck behind them as they flew.

Soon they were over the land of tweed and Amazon could see the graveyard and the battle that was taking place in it. Two figures were in their midst slashing through the forces yet for every vampire that they managed to destroy three more seemed to come up. "This is where we part." Hermes told the Amazon. "Remember all that you have done youngling. Your training could be what allows you to survive through this night. I wish I could help you; however there are still rules out there that prevent me from doing so. I can guide you but I cannot help you any farther than that without threatening the balance. The other Champions will hopefully be all the aide that you need. Odin and the Morrigan have already sent you some help in the form of their Champions."

"I understand." Amazon told her guide. "At least I'll get to meet some of the guys already in the business." The former slayer observed the army and had to wonder if her fellow champions had even thought that they were going to live through this mess. She didn't think that she had ever seen a force of vampires this big in her entire life. The closest would have been her fight in the underground base of the Initiative where soldiers and demons had been all over the place trying to kill each other.

"Go get them." The Messenger God told her fading away as the demigod headed downward.

Amazon moved in at them wondering how she was going to do any real damage to this group. This fight was just so different than her fight with A.D.A.M and the Hell-Goddess. Here she wouldn't have her friends to help her and she wouldn't have surprise on her side either. Sure she was about ten times more powerful than she was back then, but it was still kind of scary heading into a fight like this. She was forced out of her thoughts as several vampires with crossbows made themselves known and began shooting at her and the girl was forced to stay in the air and hover while her arms moved in blocking motions that began stopping the quarrels and bolts that we're being fired at her. She was now stuck if she went down lower the other two Champions would be attacked by the flying projectiles. The only way that she could do anything was to take out the shooters which meant that she was going to have to get closer to them. The flying girl began moving toward the shooters keeping herself upright as she blocked the bolts and the girl grimaced as the closer that she got the less time she had to react. She wondered just how good she really had gotten at this particular skill. There was also the matter that she would have to deal with the fact that she wasn't sure that she could make enough of the bolts to ricochet back into the vampires that were shooting at her and she would be stuck this way as she wouldn't be able to use her lasso or take the vampires out like this. She needed to do something though before she let them get the better of her like this.

A pair of fireballs came from off to the side scattering the shooters. Wonder Woman prepared to dive down and take as many of them down as she could this was the opening that she had been waiting for. She was interrupted though as something heavy slammed into her from behind. The Amazon was sent flying several feet before she could right herself when she righted herself she saw something that she wasn't expecting. A figure was currently fighting it out with a pair of large dragons. The person holing the giant beasts was barely holding his own dodging back and forth with only the occasional punch that rattled the giant lizards heads. The figure despite being more maneuverable than the dragon was unable to use that advantage due to the dragon pair working so well together. She watched as a particularly hot blast of flame erupted and the flames were blocked by some sort of golden staff. The other dragon though managed to claw his back slightly as it flew in from the other side. Wonder Woman looked down and noticed several new creatures beginning to exit out of the underground fortress that they had been hiding in. She really hoped that the others were able to handle those guys because she knew that she was still busy and couldn't stop the figures moving forward. She turned back toward the dragon fight to help the unknown figure.

* * *

Gryffindor cursed as he slammed his staff along side of the face of one of the dragons. This was getting to be old rather quickly to the young man once known as the Boy-Who-Lived. When he had made this deal he had never imagined that part of the mess he would find himself in would include him once more battling it out with bloody dragons. Considering that he had been spending a lot of his time dealing with the goblins you would think that he would be used to dealing with dragons.

The hero smirked as he realized that it seemed that only those that were looked down on were the ones that actually new the truth about the most monumental event to happen in the British wizarding world. He had come to the goblins for training and had received it in spades. While at first distrustful, angry and resentful at him for all of the damage that he had caused by stealing a dragon and collapsing several tunnels behind him. Nearly all of the older family vaults would have to be worked over now and they had to replace a dragon because of three children who had not even graduated from school. The fact that it had all been done by three children had hurt the pride of the creatures even more than he had thought. To make up for it he had begun training with the goblins in battle field tactics and sword skills. The goblins were masters of the art of war and it had caused him to wonder why neither side had actually gotten the beings on board. His teacher had explained because the wizards saw themselves so much better that was why. To the young fighter it had made since as he remembered how non humans were treated by the wizards. It made little sense to him though. The goblins controlled the money, house elves kept houses clean and food cooked, pixies lit up a number of the various places, and dwarves were the craftsmen and builders of wizard homes. If these creatures were to all leave the wizards alone the wizards would be hard pressed to do anything anymore.

He dismissed that thought as he blocked a breath of fire though. Ravenclaw or Roma or whatever she was calling herself had sent him here to stop this problem or at least doing some damage control. So now he was missing out on training and dealing with a pair of fire breathing dragons. To make it all the more fun it was a pair of bull Hungarian Horntails whose spikes were much sharper than the females. He ducked one swipe only to counter another swipe of the claws. The dragons were also strong and quick enough to keep him from using his full strength or speed in a fight that put him at a considerable weakness. Dragons were to well armored for anything but stronger blows to really hurt him and he still wasn't completely comfortable using anything more than half of his strength. He got in close to one and heard a roaring sound knowing that he was about to get hit he braced himself only to find that the pain never came as he continued to hit on his dragon. He looked behind him to see someone else slugging it out with the other dragon. It looked like he finally had a chance against these creatures. He thought as he allowed himself to add more power to the blows.

* * *

Katie huffed a bit as she got a chance to get some breathing room she looked up at a sound and looked and saw several figures moving forward she winced as she recognized them. They were inferi a type of wizard world zombie. They were invulnerable pretty much too physical attacks with those kinds of assaults they merely got thrown across the room and then got back up to go another round. Most other types of magic were also nearly useless against them as they didn't seem to notice or there were too many for cutting and blasting spells to hurt. Fire was the only type of attack that harmed them to any degree. Too bad for her she didn't know any fire spells that would take a large force of them out of the way. Well she knew two that could help her, the ring of fire spell she could use as a Valkyrie and then there was the enchanted flame spell. With only a handful of spells that could take some of them out she would be hard pressed in the coming fight. She held her sword out and watched as the blade seemed to catch on fire. "Alright, show me what you got." The girl said as she eyed the approaching army of undead.

* * *

A green haired girl was relaxing in the halls of a library. The cracking of flame and wood, and the heat coming from the nearby fireplace added to her strength and power. Hermione Granger was meditating in front of a large fireplace in a library when she felt the summons. Looking into the flames she saw Gaia forming herself out of the flames. "Mother Earth." The witch greeted the woman nodding her head respectfully to the personification of the planet.

"Fire," The figure said with a smile as she observed her elemental champion. "I wish that this was a social visit, but I have a task for you."

"Of course my lady, where are my skills needed?" Hermione questioned eager to do her duty.

"I need you to head for a place in England where already a battle between the light and dark is going on. The forces of darkness have pushed many into creating a being of great power that could destroy the world. Already other champions are making their way toward the battle where the fate of the world could change. Your power would be useful against some of those that even now are waking up for battle." A jet of flame shot of the fire and sliced into the parchment that lay nearby.

Hermione turned to look at it and saw that a map had been burned into it showing the way to where she would need to go. Committing the map to memory she fed the rest of the parchment into the flames. "I shall go at once my lady." She told her giving another small nod of her head. The fiery image nodded her head back in appreciation before vanishing. Standing up Hermione headed for the doors. Once outside the girl gave a mental thought and she was covered in green flames. With another push she was flying and headed for the sight that she was needed at.

Fire arrived at the battle site and saw the various figures that were moving around. There were two maybe three people facing off against the army of various creatures. There were vampires that were going hand to hand with two figures on the ground one of these was dressed all in black and had a sword in one hand a shotgun in the other. There was another that was wearing some red, blue, and gold hoplite styled armor hovering in the air and was blocking all sorts of incoming weapons and holding them off. The elemental felt her eyes widen slightly as she saw a pair of the flying weapons bounced off her bracelets and hit a pair of the vampires. Down below them was a figure dressed in a silver armor that while similar had several differences swinging a flaming sword.

Fire knew what her task was she fired a couple of fire ball towards where the archers were doing their best to take down the blonde figure before diving into the midst of the army. With her body spinning around and her flames shooting out from her hands she was making a small fire cyclone that was destroying the various creatures that were trying to stop the other champions. She smiled as the attack that she and her father had worked up seemed to be working taking monster after monster down. At this rate she would have managed to destroy all of them without anymore effort.

* * *

Angel cursed as he dodged a stream of fire that the fire character blew through nailing vampire and zombie alike. The only problem was that they were coming dangerously close to burning him as well. He might have a more resilient body than most vampires but he doubted that he could withstand the flames that were being used against the monsters. He dove to the ground as another blast of flames came near him. The damphir managed to get over by a crypt and get away from the deadly flames. He turned around and groaned at the sight before him there was about a dozen vampires hiding from the flaming attacks. "Looks like we got a few rounds to go still." He said as he lunged forward slicing the limbs off of one vampire while hurling another vampire out into the open where there was a good chance that he would be turned to ash.

* * *

Valkyrie flinched as she watched her shield spell just barely hold off the power of the fire that was being thrown at her. Whoever this person was they had no concept of teamwork the Valkyrie thought to herself as she poured more power into the shield. When they got out of this mess they would have to work on that if they ever planned on working together again. With the way that the flames were going she couldn't even call on her Pegasus for fear that the stray flames would burn his wings off or roast him alive. She was going to be forced to come up with a different form of escape entirely since she couldn't use her usual methods of leaving.

Valkyrie watched as something lumbered into view and slammed a giant fist into the fiery figure she winced in sympathy but was glad as she was finally able to drop the fire shield. She rose to her feet and kept her swprd at the ready in case whatever had hit the other person decided to come charging at her. The green figure climbed to their feet wincing a bit and holding their ribs in pain from the hit. Katie turned to look at what had hit the elemental and bit back a couple of curses as she saw a giant troll step out of the smoke and ash. This wasn't a regular troll though no this one was a fully grown, 12 foot mountain troll. It was wearing a combination of thick animals hides, chain mail, helmet and in its hands it was carrying a sword as big as she was. "Looks like you could use some help." Valkyrie commented as she moved herself in between the troll and the elemental bringing her sword up into a guard position.

"You could say that." The other figure hissed out in pain.

Valkyrie looked down at the downed elemental with worry. Her flames were flickering in and out as if she was having to work to stay in her flame form. "You think that you're going to be able to keep going?" She questioned her.

"Not for much longer." The other girl admitted.

Valkyrie frowned at that there was something familiar about the girl, unfortunately there was nothing she could do about that now. She had to focus on the fact that there was a full grown mountain troll before her.

The girl let out a dry chuckle. "It figures that it would be a mountain troll that would be the end of me." The girl muttered as she held her injuries. "I wonder if they're related?"

"Now's not the time to worry about whatever happened way back when." Valkyrie snarled at the other girl. She then charged at the troll her sword held high. The troll responded to her charge with a heavy downward swing from its giant blade. The Champion of the Aesir surprised the troll as she met her blade against his. The troll pushed against the blade trying to force the smaller warrior down into submission. The warrior merely met the challenge and held strong in the contest of strength. With a heave Valkyrie pushed the blade away. While the troll stumbled back the champion moved in with a quick and deadly grace she sliced along the side of the monster drawing blood alongside of the ribs spinning around she leaped into the air and sliced again her sword cutting into the arm.

The troll roared in fury and slammed its fist into Valkyrie. The heroine grunted and was thrown twenty feet away slamming into a headstone and shattering it.

Fire managed to wobbly climb to her feet and fire several low level fire balls at large opponent. They weren't enough to hurt the thick hided creature but it was enough to distract it. The creature turned to face her and gave a snarl at her.

The snarl was all it had time for as several large pieces of the headstone were thrown at it making it turn to face its former opponent. Valkyrie leaped at it the two meeting blade against blade. The troll had the advantage of having a clawed hand as well as it swiped at her. The nails that could slice through troll flesh in a pack leader combat easily sliced into her own skin and left sparks and scratches along her armor. Despite the various injuries the warrior woman stood strong against the troll. Ducking under another slice she brought her sword into the wrist cutting into the arm as deep as she could. The creature howled and slammed its claws into her while the ones aimed at her armor missed her arms were punctured.

"Watch out!" Fire shouted in worry. Valkyrie turned to look and was caught in between several flames and the crushing claws coming back in for another shot. The flames burned into her skin and the claws pierced her left calf.

Fire looked at the troll that now stood towering over the downed warrior. With another punch it sent the armored figure flying into the elemental. Fire wondered what she could do now she had tried to take a shot at the large creature but the quicker more agile woman fighting it had kept getting in her way at the last minute. She finally had a shot though and fired using nearly all of her strength. She had watched in horror as Valkyrie had gotten in the way of the attack. She had tried to warn her away but the girl had merely been hit on either side by her attack and the troll's. The fallen warrior was now stunned and unable to move and fire was pinned down unable to activate her flames without cooking the other fighter. She closed her eyes expecting the finishing blow when an energy blast came from behind her and blasted the troll away.

Fire turned and saw a figure in red and gold colors landing in front of her. This figure wore red clothes and golden cape helmet gloves and boots. "I apologize for being late." The figure said to her. "I was busy at the time."

Fire couldn't help but notice that despite the bell shaped helmet the figure wore his voice didn't seem to echo in his helmet. She shook her head and focused on the more important things like how they were going to deal with this.

"Well better late than never." Valkyrie returned to the newest arrival as she climbed to her feet.

"I am Fate." The figure said in greeting. "I am the Champion of Nabu, one of the guardians of balance. How badly have the two of you been wounded?" The man questioned as he saw the scrapes and bruises that the blonde was sporting.

"Names Valkyrie," The blonde returned at him. "Mainly just scratches, give me a couple of days and they won't even be there anymore."

"And you?" Fate asked looking down at Fire.

"I'm called Fire. I think I have internal bleeding or something like that most likely." The heroine admitted to the figure. That troll caught me off guard and hit me pretty hard I might also have some broken bones."

"I can heal you." Fate informed her as his hands glowed for a moment and Fire felt her body return to being combat ready.

'Having the resilience that Valkyrie had would be nice.' Fire thought to herself as she climbed to her feet. "Now what?" She questioned them.

"Now we stop this ceremony." Fate returned waving a hand over Valkyrie as well closing the more severe of the cuts in her skin up.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Angel said as he limped over and joined the group. Fate nodded and waved his hand healing battle damage that the dhamphir had acquired. "We have anyone else joining the group?" He asked as he looked them over.

Fire looked into the sky and pointed toward the sky. Looking up they saw two figures wrestling with what looked like dragons. The two creatures were forced to the ground and standing over the creatures with singed costumes were Wonder Woman and Gryffindor. "You guys weren't about to go into the main party without us now were you?" Wonder Woman asked with a smile as she looked down at the others from her place on the snout of her dragon.

"I am Fate, Champion of Nabu from Egypt." The Mage said.

"Valkyrie, champion of the Aesir." The silver armored figure said nodding at the others as she checked her sword.

"I'm Fire, Champion of Mother Earth." The Elemental returned. "Its good to see you again my dad said to tell you high." She told the staff wielder.

"What did you do?" The masked figure responded as he seemed to catch onto whatever she was saying. He looked slightly embaressed as he realized the others were watching him. He scratched the back of his head as he gathered his thoughts. "Er, I'm Gryffindor of Briton. I am the champion of Roma guardian of the multiverse."

"You can call me Blade." the Damphir responded while giving the girl on the dragon a look which she responded with a glare to. I am the Champion of the Morrigan from Ireland.

"And that leaves me." The blonde said as she leapt off the dragon's head. "You can call me Wonder Woman Champion of the Greek Gods. Hermes prefers calling me Amazon though." She said brightly as she surveyed the group of Champions.

"Fine, so lets stop this mess before it becomes a mess that we can't stop." Blade told them.

"Agreed," Gryffindor said as the two headed toward the door unaware of the death stares that Fire and Wonder Woman were sending.

"Think that there's some history there?" Fate asked slightly amused as he watched the four head for the doors.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Valkyrie returned to him. "Still there's something familiar about Gryffindor and Fire. Like I used to know them or some such thing." The warrior shook her head and followed after the others while Fate merely shook his head at the group of people he was fighting with. Maybe he should have asked his wife to come with him when Nabu had ordered him to come help these folks. As they neared the heavy doors which were made of thick stone and metal they shattered.

* * *

Earlier.

"We must hurry my brethren. The Champions are coming, our time grows short." One of the group said as they felt the earth rumble around them.

"Don't fear too much my friend, that is also the second wave of fighters being released." The leader told his companion. "That is no reason not to go ahead with our duties though. It means that the army of vampires is failing to stop whatever it is that the forces of light managed to scramble together."

"Do you have any idea what that might be? There are rumors that there is more than just a Slayer to fight the forces of darkness now. I have heard tales of a second slayer that fights just for fun, a vampire that hunts its own kind even. Then there are other stories."

"What stories my friend?"

"They say the Ice Queen was defeated by an elemental, that there's a new vampire demon hunter out there destroying everything that it finds, a wizard of unknown power, and two girls with the strength of giants in gold in silver armor, and then there is the one simply known as Gryffindor. He took on the Dark Lord and won where all before him had failed."

"There are no champions of the Powers I know of that fit those descriptions." The leader said waving the concerns of his companions. "They are just that. Stories to inspire hope into those that know the truth of what is truly out there and what is in here."

"Even if none of the others exist Gryffindor does, I have seen him. He was there in the final battle. I watched him battle the Dark Lord and win on brute strength alone. The Dark Lord was the most powerful yet still he fell to the hands of Gryffindor." A wizard told them. "I would rather not face Gryffindor without the help of a higher being."

"And that is what we shall have once all is said and done." The leader growled at the nervous wizard. "Our people have remained hidden within the shadows waiting for this day and now that it is here you would deny the commitment and sacrifices that they have given for this?" He questioned in annoyance. "Bring in the sacrifices." He ordered before any of the others could say or do something that would stop them again. The others nodded and seven chained figures were brought forward. The group was forced toward the sarcophagus that was in the middle of the room and each of their hands were forced onto the gems that were scattered around the it. The worshippers watched eagerly as the gems seemed to move aside and small flakes of dust began to move in a small tornado around the group of sacrifices. The members of the group each stumbled for a moment before falling down.

"Now what?" One person questioned.

"Now we try and get them out of here." The leader responded. "It will take anywhere from a day to a week to destroy the souls of the host forms and allow our God to rise again according to the notes that were left for us by Knox."

"We don't have that kind of time though." Another argued besides "How are we going to pass those heroes up there?"

"Simple, one person said, "We don't. We make up some time." He said as he reached into his cloak and pulled out several golden necklaces. "These are time turners my friends. With these I can give us the time that we need so that we can give them the time they need to be consumed."

The leader nodded at the man. "Do what you need to do." He ordered "Hopefully they will remain long enough so that we do not change time any."The others nodded as they fixed the golden chains on their sacrifices and spun the objects on the end. Go with them. The leader ordered the wizard you will know what to expect. Give the other me a message to hire an army's worth of vampires and to prepare the inferi and anything else that they might offer us in protecting ourselves we obviously didn't prepare enough as it was.

The wizard nodded as he knelt alongside of the group and draped one of the chains around his neck. How long should I spin them?

"How do they work?"

"One hour a turn." He responded as he examined the necklace.

"Then you need to go back about a week then. According to our fallen brethren it could take anywhere from one to two days for the affect to be complete. With only part of the power within each of them it may take longer than if it was one host body. You how many hours are there in a week?" One of the men demanded of one of the sacrifices.

"168." The figure mumbled not knowing what what it was that this figure needed for that sort of information.

"Good." The wizard replied and spun all of the small hourglass like emblems on the necklaces with a flick of his wand. The group watched as all of the figures seemed to just disappear before their very eyes as if they were never there.

"Now we wait and see if they will come and aide us." One of the men said hopefully as they waited anxiously for the results of what they had just done.

A door off to the side opened and they saw seven figures walk out. "We are ready, you promised us a battle to test our strength against. He said that they would not be muck that we could have defeated with ease but that they had power where are they?" The seven figures questioned each of them speaking as one creating an echo affect as they spoke to their worshippers.

"They are outside Illyria." The leader said as he bowed to the God King.

"Very well then, show us to where this battle is." They commanded. The people nodded as they led their God towards the doors that had kept them safely inside. One of the seven strode forward and slammed their fist into the door shattering it.

* * *

The two groups faced off looking at each other waiting for one or the other two move. One side has brightly colored warriors that are the protectors of the world. On the other is a group of figures with blue hair and blue tinted skin along with some odd body armor that looked like a leather bodysuit. The warriors of the Gods and the God King were now facing each other as one

"You are our opponents?" The blue figures questioned them. "We are Illyria, Primordial Demon God King, and will destroy you and any who get in our way."

"Kind of creepy." Wonder Woman noted to the others as she watched the group walk out of the cave. "Think that they do kid parties to?"

"You are not as bad as some of the muck that now inhabits this world." They continued as they observed the group as if the blonde hadn't spoken. "I may merely make pets out of you after all of this is done." The figures continued as they observed the champions.

"Sorry, despite the costume I'm not really into all that kinky stuff." Wonder Woman returned with an innocent smile. The others chuckled a bit at the quick and snappy comebacks that the blonde was shooting off at the beings in front of them.

"Forgot how much I missed this." Blade said with a smile as continued to listen to the group be mocked by the blonde.

"You have no choice in the matter. We shall destroy you." Illyria said in unison, not seeming to be insulted by the comebacks that the blonde was shooting at them.

"We'll see about that." Gryffindor said as he pointed his staff at them and fired a blast of energy at them. A portal opened up in front of the group and swallowed the blast. Another one appeared in front of them and fired the bolt back out at them. The group scattered at this as they were now being struck by their own attack. Well that could have gone better. Gryffindor grumbled as he climbed to his feet.

"Ya think?" Blade growled as he drew his guns and began firing at the Illyria who had yet to move. The bullets entered another portal and shot at them but Valkyrie, Fate, Gryffindor, and Wonder Woman all blocked the attacks while Fire shot a stream of flame toward the portal melting the bullets.

"Well so much for our first attack." Fate said dryly as he saw the affects that their attacks were having.

"Well if we can't hurt them from a distance then I guess we get to hurt them the old fashioned way." Wonder Woman returned as she slammed her fist into her hand and gave a smile. "Who's with me on this one?"

"Let's do it." Blade said offering his hand toward her nodding the Amazon nodded her head in agreement ignored his hand and took Valkyrie's instead and the pair flew at the group. "Yeah she's mad." Blade noted as he gripped Gryffindor's hand and they flew toward the demons. Gryffindor slung the damphir forward and he felt himself flying at one of the group.

He twisted around so that his sword was leading and cursed as his target disappeared. He landed in a roll and came up to see the one he had been thrown at waiting for him to rise. Once he was on his feet he lunged and missed again. The person he was fighting was a blur every time he got close they moved at a rate faster than he could track. "Super speed?" He questioned his opponent curiously. He drew his gun and began firing and watched as even a close range gun was useless as the person seemed to move themselves between the bullets. Blade snarled and threw his now empty gun at the figure that caught the gun. He was still for a moment and the sword nearly hit him. The damphir cursed though as all the bits and pieces of the tossed gun were thrown in his face. The damphir didn't how to fight someone that was so much faster than he was. Swinging around he grunted as he felt a number of combos strike him across the chest and stomach. Each blow was at the least as strong as his own. He staggered back a few steps as he tried to think up another attack when he felt himself get clotheslines and tossed several feet. He staggered back up to his feet only to be slammed into a wall as the figure pressed their attack onward. The man stumbled back to his feet once again preparing to go again.

"You cannot win you have not the power." The figure stated finally speaking right before they blurred out of sight coming in behind the dark figure and slamming him back into the ground.

Valkyrie nodded at her opponent there was something different about this one than the demons, trolls inferi, and vampires that she had battled. She swiped with her sword and watched it casually side step her swing with a speed that was on par with her own. Moving forward she slashed again and smiled as this time Dragon Fang managed to slice through a piece of her arm leaving a thin line of blood alongside it. Pressing her attack she swung several more times most of her blows missing but enough of them were causing small little trickles on her that she knew it was only a matter of time before she managed to slow her opponent down and finish them off. Slamming the butt of her sword into the face of her opponet while they staggered back she thrust her blade deep into their gut. Yanking the blade out she then followed up with a swing that took the hand off the demon. She panted a couple minutes as the fight had been harder than she expected as they had forced her to keep moving. "Looks like I had the power after all." she mocked the body.

The agent of the Aesir turned to look towards one of the others when she felt a hand grab her by the shoulder and spin her around. An elbow caught her across the face as she spun and then a kick was thrown into her stomach throwing her across the yard. Valkyrie coughed and looked to see what had hit her and couldn't believe her eyes. Striding toward her with an annoyed look in their eyes was the figure she had just stabbed and hacked up only the large cuts that should have been all over were nowhere to be seen and the hole where she had stabbed them was actually closing up.

"I am not that weak little scum." The figure said holding its arm up and watching with detached interest as the limb grew and a new hand sprouted out. "I can heal from any injury that you can give me, and now that you don't have your sword I believe I shall show you what I think of one of my future pets."

"Not happening." The blonde growled as she lunged forward. The Illyria grabbed her outstretched arms and tossed her back into the ground and delivered several kicks to her side which the girl could feel through her armor.

"You have no choice." Illyria returned grabbing the hero up by the back of her belt and tossing her aside as if she was of no consequence.

Valkyrie groaned as she climbed back to her feet. Her body felt sluggish as she moved forward. Holding her hand out her sword zipped back into her hand. "Alright, let's try this again." The girl growled out in anger at the figure that had just humiliated her. She dove at Illyria and was met with a kick to the face. She swung and was met with a shot to the ribs no matter what she did every blow was countered or shrugged off as the rapid healing took care of any of the damage before it could seriously slow it down. She swung her foot up and it was caught and she was flipped over her hand lashed out catching her and she was dealt a kick to the back of her head knocking her over. Once on the ground Illyria began pounding on her face. With a backhand the Aesir managed to knock her back. She climbed up again despite her protest of wanting to fall down and sleep or die she rose to continue the fight. She watched as her Pegasus dive bombed Illyria giving her a chance to get up. She watched in shock as her steed was grabbed by the neck and forced to the ground as her opponent flipped on top and pinned the outstretched wings. Now it was personal the young warrior thought as she got back to her feet.

Fire growled in frustration as a vine tried to climb all over her. The battle had been elemental against elemental, Earth vs. Fire. Unfortunately for her the earth elemental was keeping her back. Every time she moved forward a new vine would spring out of the ground and wrap itself around her causing her to stop and let loose a burst of fire or throw a fireball to free herself. She didn't know why she didn't seem to be able to stop these things she had gone through training in various conditions that her dad had formed and while none of them had been giant plants one of them had been dodging chains and ropes. She increased her heat for a moment as another vine wrapped around her body snapping it. She was close enough that she tried another fireball directed at Illyria but it was countered by another wall of plants that seemed to shoot up at impossible speed. "Just burn already!" She shouted as she let loose with a stream of flames. The attack was met with several vines shooting out of the ground and slamming into her. The blow threw her back the way she had come.

"I shall not be on the losing end to muck like you." Illyria said moving forward and causing several vines to creep over the body of the stunned heroine binding her tightly in a cocoon of vines that she couldn't burn her way through as the vines were making it hard to create a flame. "You are my pet and I shall break you to my will."

Fire glared in response at Illyria before taking a deep breath and blowing a stream of green flames out of her mouth and onto the vines light them causing them to break apart allowing parts of her body to light back up adding more flames to the fire. "I'm not that weak." The heroine said as she shrugged the half burned vines off of her and shot several fire balls at Illyria only forcing the earth elemental to rear back allowing Fire to finish her escape. Fire took off to get some distance between them and began launching fireballs at Illyria only for them to be block by more vines. It was like fighting the giant squid the girl thought. Her thoughts were cut short as a vine wrapped around her and slung her toward the ground. As she gained control of her fall the fine slammed into her knocking her down the rest of the way. Vines began creeping around her again this time covering her mouth as well.

Wonder Woman and Gryffindor were being tossed around by two of the more impressive members of the group. One was the portal maker who seemed to casually bounce between the two heroes or create holes that let the earth shattering blows seem to come from everywhere and nowhere. Wonder Woman was flying near blind at the assault that they were under. Gryffindor wasn't doing much better, but his ability to shoot energy blasts at their opponents gave him the chance to force them to move around buy thing some time. No matter what he tried though he couldn't hit the pair. The portal maker growing tired of being shot at opened a portal and laughed as it swallowed the attack and tossed it right back at the hero. Gryffindor was sent flying as his energy beam caught him and threw him away.

Taking advantage of there only being one of them now, the other one moved forward and began to grapple with the remaining hero. Moving with a speed that belied his bulk Illyria moved forward Wonder Woman met the figure head on and the two met in the middle and began to grapple. Each of them trying to force the other one to the ground in a deadly game of mercy. The pair knew that the loser of this game was likely to lose their life.

Gryffindor shook the blow off and came back at them only for the teleporter to block his way. "Bout time you got close enough for me to hit." The hero grunted as he took a swing only for his opponent to duck the teleported waved his arms and suddenly several rocks shot out of the portal peppering the hero who was forced on the defensive as he created a shield to hold the attack off. The assault stopped and Gryffindor fired again from his staff already moving out of the way as the blast was redirected though and struck near him. Holding his hand out the sword of Gryffindor appeared in his hand and he swung both weapon at the being before him not bothering with the energy that the weapons could create but more interested in just trying to hit his opponent. The portal user dropped through a portal that he had made beneath him and reappeared in the other side of him. Glaring the hero swung again only to miss. Illyria responded by opening a portal and a waterfall came flying through striking the hero and knocking him back again. He was on his knees and he was trying to climb to his feet. Illyria walked up to him and kicked him in the face knocking him down.

Illyria looked at her new pet with amusement before turning toward one of its other halves watching as it was beating on another pet. This one was dressed in golden armor and was trying to match strength. The girl slammed her head into the Illyria causing it to stumble back for a moment before an upper cut caught Wonder Woman by surprise and then a kick knocked her down. Several more kicks to the ribs placed the young warrior broken at their feet. "You are great entertainment little one." Illyria said dragging the young warrior up by her hair. "I think I shall enjoy having you and the silver one battle it out. It will make for many an enjoyable night."

"We're not done here yet." Gryffindor choked out as he threw a rock toward the pair.

Illyria turned to face to boulder but was caught from behind with a blow to the kidney's from Wonder Woman. Glaring angrily the demon slashed at the figure causing sparks on the armor and blood on the unprotected limbs. While the demon was distracted the boulder slammed into them knocking it away.

"Very well." The strong one said as it stomped forward and ducked several swings that could have shattered cars but were useless as they missed their intended target. Illyria responded by ducking one swing and grabbing him by the arm then swung the hero around and threw him into a crypt. Gryffindor tried to climb back up but finally fell to the ground in exhaustion.

Fate watched the creature that it was fighting warily. It had proven to be a dangerous foe as it was a shapeshifter and seemed to be able to simulate any of the abilities that the other members of the Illyria were capable but at a weaker rate if it was using more than one but if it changed only into one of them then it seemed to have nearly the same level of power. Still the various abilities that it was using were of no consequence to him. Fate was releasing energy bolts forcing his target to keep dodging. A few times it had teleported nearby only for him to use his super strength to knock it away. The fight was not all easy though as some of the attacks were hard to predict. Flying back into the air he dodged a plant covered in thorns that nearly caught him. A blast blew it away and then another blast to keep Illyria back. He watched with interest as the burn marks healed over as it caught its breath.

"You are the last, sooner or later you will fall to us." Illyria informed the red and gold mage.

Fate was startled at that and looked and saw that it was correct. All of the other heroes had fallen to the ground. "This shouldn't be possible." He cast a spell and soon all of the members of the group were summoned to his side as he examined the damage. He watched as a portal opened nearby and another figure in blue appeared at its side was two muscular figures one was a body full of muscles while the other one was covered in blood but no wounds. A burst of wind and another one appeared. The ground erupted and another vine shot out this one was thick though it opened and a person stepped out of it. He could make out another one keeping far back and realized that he was surrounded. "This is not over." He promised them as he summoned his power and an ankh appeared around them and he teleported the fallen heroes to a place that he knew to be safe.

When the light cleared the group found themselves in a strange building. "Where are we?" Blade mumbled as he forced himself up.

"A safe place." Fate returned to the dark clad figure.

"And that is where?" Valkyrie asked painfully.

"Our workshop." A pair of voices said as two figures appeared out of two bursts of flame. The figures standing there had their arms crossed over their chests as the flames died down as they looked at the downed heroes. One had a leather work apron on while the other wore a tool belt around their waist. The two were completely different until one looked at their eyes and saw orbs that glowed with mischief and grief. One pair dark brown, the other bright blue.

"Xander?"

"Fred?"

Several voices said in surprise as the heroes climbed to their feet.

"Well that kind of messes the awe part up." Xander mock complained with a knowing grin. "No mystery if you already know who we are."

"Too true." Fred agreed before chuckling at the gob smacked expressions several of the heroes were wearing.

Xander merely shook his head at his companion. "How you doing Buffster?" The young man asked.


	8. Regroup

I'm not rich enough to own the rights to any of these characters

* * *

The Amazon warrior laughed as she launched herself into the arms of a smiling Xander. The young man caught her and just held her tightly as if afraid if he let her go that she would disappear from him. The former slayer was surprised at his grip as she was fairly certain that his hold on her was greater than that of a vampire. She didn't say anything though she noticed that Valkyrie had launched herself into the arms of the redhead and acting a lot like her as she greeted a long lost friend. The two super heroines were finally put down by the young men and allowed to get a good look at the two men. Both men had shaggy hair and eyes that seemed to twinkle with some unknown joke. There was also a hardness in their eyes that came from people who knew the hardships of life. The two grinned a bit as they examined everyone. "You guys can probably toss the masks, flames, and helmets to the side. It's not like they do all that much." Xander informed Gryffindor, Fate and Fire.

"For sure, besides we all have our own little secrets here." George said with a grin.

"We'll keep them up for the moment." Gryffindor returned getting agreeing nods from the other two who were trying to keep their faces hidden.

The two men shrugged a bit at this not seeming to care one way or the other. "Glad you decided to take us up on the offer of a safe place when you needed one." George told Fate with a grin. "Even brought along some friends I see." He added as he gave a one armed hug to Valkyrie. "Not that I'm complaining. Seeing women running around in tight fitting clothes is always a good thing in our book."

"But we do have more important things to talk about." Xander interrupted. "Like what happened and how to get you guys back out there before those guys do anything else. So welcome to our workshop where we will fix you all up so you can play whack a demon."

"Xander what happened to you?" Buffy questioned curiously. "You're as strong as a basic demon at least. Then there's this place." She said waving her hands at the large cave that they were in that all sorts of fires and blacksmith tools lying around.

"Would you believe me if I told you that you weren't the only one to get cool powers?" Xander asked curiously. "Granted mine aren't as cool as yours but they're still something."

"Alright I'll bite, what happened to my Xander shaped friend, and how did you get powers?" Buffy questioned him with a grin used to his posturing.

"It seems that there are other slots on the roster besides fighters that needed to be filled with the new order of things." The young man explained. "Curious George and I seemed to fit the slots that they had for us. The various gods, ancient dwarves, trolls, elves, and whatever else that was in charge of building stuff for the Gods and heroes way back when decided that we would do for the job."

"Yeah so down they come and gave us both these long stories about why they were doing all of this and then making us an offer." George added.

"Seemed like a good idea so we took them up on their offer." Xander said with a smile.

"Yeah, so now while the Xan-Man here builds all of the cool stuff I do the voo doo that I do and enchant it." George said with a smirk.

"Uh huh." Katie said crossing her arms and looking at the red head intently. "And what else is there? You might as well drop the other shoe."

"What makes you think that there's something else?" The redhead questioned curiously while giving an innocent look at her.

"I know you." The blonde girl said poking him in the chest as she glared at her friend. "I also know that you wouldn't volunteer this much information unless you had something big for an ending."

"Something like that." Xander said with a grin as he watched his partner rub his chest. "But we thought you would like to know the score of what has been happening. Sure you might have thought one or two of you coming along to counter the balance but all of you?" The young man questioned. The heroes all looked disturbed that there might be more to their powers than what they had originally thought.

"Yeah, we were kind of surprised by it as well but we managed to classify it into different types of powered beings with the help of people like Giles and Wesley." Xander told them with a smile getting knowing smiles from Blade, and Wonder Woman.

"Who?" Fire questioned curiously.

"Book smart people that understand the whole thing a whole lot better than we do." George returned to the fiery girl. The girl nodded though her eyes narrowed slightly at the unintentional slight on her intelligence. If she removed her flames she doubted that the redhead would dare say that to her.

"And what did they explain?" Fate asked curiously.

"Well according to them there are three worlds that co exists out there." Xander told the group. "There's the regular or muggle world, the wizarding world where the wand wavers live and then there is the supernatural world which is a combination of the other two. The supernatural world deals mostly with demons, the vampires and whatever else is out there. The wizards are charged with keeping things like dragons and phoenixes and anything else like that in their world. From what Giles said it's the job of people like the Powers that Be to oversee it all. The supernatural and magical worlds both have people that watch out for bleed through so that nothing goes wrong. The Powers that Be and most of the ones like them have been dropping the ball of late though. Seems that they were sapping some of the Slayer power to themselves and using it in other places to make them more powerful. The old gods were woken up from their sleep by a series of imbalances that made them take action though."

"What kind of imbalances?" Angel asked curiously as he looked Gryffindor over with interest.

"Voldemort making Harry into a container was one of them." George said looking sad. "Old Harry was a good kid, bit crazy and all but a good bloke to have at your back. Dumbledore's refusing to make him a counter to him also changed the balance as well then to finish it off he killed Harry off. So many imbalances made it so that Gryffindor here was created. Whoever he is or used to be. Same thing happened with your place mate." The redhead said to Angel. "The curse being ripped in and out of ya then destroying everything that you created while inflicting no real damage on the bad guys made the balance wobble again. You lost your team for the most part as I understand. The true seer being dead, the young watcher, new seer in the hospital. While the Host and street warrior were just trying to stay out of the crosshairs."

"Then there's the whole Adam and the hell god thing." Xander said rubbing his back at the memory of the woman that had ripped through the Scoobies and their soldier friends like Kleenex. "It was the Power's job to delay Glory, they ignored her though and because of her there was nearly a slaughter. As it was Willow, Giles, Riley, Graham, and Spike were taken out of play maybe even permanently for Will and Giles while Spike and the soldier boys are gone. There are a few other imbalances as well, but they're ones that you haven't heard of and right now you need to worry about this fight instead of other fights that aren't going so well."

"All of these imbalances led to all of our creation." The redheaded wizard told them. "At least that's how the Gods explained it to us when they were juicing us up."

"Yeah the Powers are limited as well." Xander added with a smirk. "The slayer is the only Champion that they're allowed to have any control over. Outside of Faith the Powers have no authority over anyone. It's a part of their punishment for allowing things to get as bad as they have."

Buffy and Angel chuckled while the others who had little contact to know contact merely looked at them confused. "Kind of makes me wonder what happened to Whistler now if they've been so limited." Buffy said with a smile.

"You know Whistler?" Angel said in surprise as he recalled the balance demon that had helped him out of LA and toward Sunnydale.

"Yeah the Powers sent him to tell me to kill you." Buffy returned the humor fading from her eyes.

"Yeah, the guy is annoying but he is our contact to the Powers that Be here." Xander told them. "Since he knows how you feel about him I wouldn't be surprised if he works on making himself scarce.

"Okay, that's a lot to think over." Fate admitted to them getting agreeing nods from all of the others. "That doesn't explain you though, is there something different about your abilities as opposed to ours?"

"Yeah there is that." George said with a sad smile. "Seems that we're not front line fighters anymore, but the guys that make the stuff for you guys. We're hero support as the last member of the group likes to call us."

"Last member?" Fire questioned looking around for anyone else.

"Yeah after Sunnydale got a new Slayer it also got a new team complete with a new Zeppo." Xander explained to them. "That Zeppo ended up becoming one of our main information sources." Xander said getting understanding nods from the former slayer and vampire. "You'll meet him later and probably beg to never meet him again. Anyways Giles, Wes, and Willow came up with a theory on what is going on. There are two levels of people being given powers. There's the ones like you which are the warrior class or the Empowered ones who have the powers of super heroes from various sources. Then there are those like us who are Blessed with extra skills and abilities to perform a certain type of job."

"In our case the job is that of making better weapons and other things as needed." George explained. "Xander here builds the weapons then I come back and put power into the weapons by enchanting them and what not."

"So there are Empowered and Blessed agents." Fire said nodding her head in understanding. "It makes since really, I mean rather than having to come back each and every time to repair anything that was damaged or when there is a need for more power we come here that way balance cannot be affected by the source powers interference."

"Impressive." Blade said in agreement.

"That it is Dead-Boy that it is." Xander returned.

Angel smirked at him as he glared at him. "That name doesn't refer to me anymore. I happen to be an immortal now not a vampire. In short I'm not dead anymore." He boasted to the Blessed one.

"What?" Wonder Woman said marching toward him and placing her hand under his shirt. "You're alive." She said in shock and surprise.

"Uh, yeah." The dark haired figure admitted looking suddenly nervous as the cocky grin he had been wearing was wiped from his face much to the amusement of the watching Xander.

"And you didn't think to call me and tell me that there was a chance that the soul might be permanent?" She asked in annoyance while giving him a glare that would have killed most people. The blonde then spun around to look at her friend. "Xander, do you have a place that the two of us can talk? I think that the two of us have several things to say and unless you want us to put it all out here." Buffy trailed off.

"Take that shaft over there two floors down," Xander replied, "there's a training room in there with soundproofing. It should give you the privacy you need."

"Thank you." The young woman said before tossing the dark clothed figure at the shaft before diving in after him.

"I wish she would just kick his ass all over the place personally, but somehow I doubt that's going to happen." Xander grumbled as they heard a loud slamming sound.

"Don't worry that's just the main doors closing." George assured the others. "That isn't though." He added a moment later as another loud sound echoed from down below them.

"You don't seem to like him very much." Fire noted as she looked toward the shaft wondering if she and Gryffindor would be using the room next to discuss their problems.

"It's personal," Xander returned to her as he looked at the shaft with another scowl. He then turned to her and shook his head. "And you're not going to quit asking until I tell you are you?" He asked her with a knowing look. The flaming girl flared a bit in a blush. He limped toward a large chair and sat down. "Alright here's the story little matchstick. Once upon a time there were three friends. They were the three amigos the outcasts and all of that. Then there came the day that a girl destined to be hero transferred to our school. She was that girl as a matter of fact." He added nodding toward the shaft. "It was on that day I learned of the supernatural. My friends were captured by vampires and the Buffster and I headed out after them. The Hair Gel King warned us about it being dangerous and all that but when asked if he would come with us he disappeared into the shadows. I ended up losing one of my best friends because he was too scared to fight for people. Made it all the worse when I learned he was one of the few people that could have made a difference. It's part of why I forced him to track Buffy that one time since it was the same one that took my best friend. I wasn't losing anyone else if I could help it." The others nodded their heads in acceptance not really sure what to say about that. "He had to learn how to rush out and save someone." Xander was so wrapped up in his memories that he didn't notice the two heroes float back up to join them. "Buffy didn't need to be taught that. She whined, she moped, she pouted, she tried to run away, and cried about it. When the time came she did her job better than anyone else though."

"Awe I think I'm going to cry." The former slayer complained a bit as she listened to him.

Xander flashed her a smile at this as he climbed out of the chair. "Sorry Buffster, I just couldn't help myself. Anyways, I guess it's time for you to deal with the last member of our team. Hope you guys survive the experience." A large door opened and a scrawny looking young man entered. His eyes seemed to light up in untold happiness as he saw all of the armored figures standing around the room. "Meet Andrew Wells, our number one source for superhero information." Xander said nodding toward the figure.

"It is an honor to meet so many great and mighty warriors." The boy said trying to be solemn but still seemed comical. "I um have a speech that I wanted to say for this momentous occasion." He looked over at the other two members of the group who were giving him tired grins. "I promised myself that I wouldn't cry." The young man stammered as he wiped at his face. "Tinker, Forge do the two of you think that you could take my picture with them?"

"We're not doing photo shoots." Gryffindor and Fire said darkly.

The boy looked shocked and hurt at this. "We got more important things to worry about than taking pictures for your scrapbook." Gryffindor said. "Besides do I look like Lockhart to you?"

"Oh, um okay." The boy seemed to deflate a bit at this making the two feel a bit bad for what they had done to the young man.

"As amusing as this is we have bigger problems." George said as he waved his hands over one of the flames and an image appeared. They saw one of the members of Illyria tearing through an army of wizards. While you guys were talking a report came over the wireless on what our enemy are up to. They've decided to go and take over the various Magical governments of the world. At the moment they've hit America, England, France, Russia, China, Italy, and Japan. With so many of the big hitting wizarding countries under attack it will only be a matter of time that they'll fall and you saw the army they had before if they were able to find a replacement army that fast."

"Probably just looked through the dimensions until they saw an army willing to work for them." Xander noted with worry as he rubbed his jaws. "They're under attack now, but it won't be long until they win if we don't do anything about it."

"And what can we do? The last time we went up against them they kicked our asses all over the place." Buffy reminded them. "How do we fight this?"

"Get you all some decent armor and take away their cheat." George returned to the blonde.

"What cheat did they have?" Katie asked in confusion not recalling there having been a cheat.

Xander waved his hands over the flame and they saw the battle from before. "I'm still working on getting the cable to work down here." Xander informed them with a smirk before pointing to a lone figure that was watching the fight. "Illyria as it called itself is made up of 7 beings each one of them seems to have a special skill or ability that it can use. Speed, Strength, Portals, Plant Control, Healing, and Shape shifting. The shapeshifter also has the ability to use the abilities of the others to a lesser extent. However this one didn't do anything but watch the fight." The young man said pointing to one of the members of Illyria that was standing off to the side.

"Maybe he was backup in case someone was beaten?" Gryffindor suggested.

"Nope, if that was the case he would have helped out against Fate here when he was beating the crap out of the shape shifter." George pointed out as they watched the mentioned hero blast his opponent away.

"Good point." Fate said. "He didn't get backup until the rest of you had been taken out and that was with the others not from him."

"Oh look he's holding his head in concentration." Andrew said with a smile. "He must be using some form of telepathy. I wonder if he has telekinetic potential as well? He could be like Professor X, No he would be like the Shadow King or the Dark Phoenix."

"Did you understand any of that?" Angel questioned Xander curiously as he looked at the blonde then Xander.

The young man's shoulders slumped a bit. "Unfortunately I understood everything that he said." Xander returned to the vampire.

"Care to explain to the rest of the class then?" Fate asked curiously.

"Telepathy, mind reading whatever you want to call it." Xander replied to the figure. "This guy was using mental attacks on you guys for some reason."

"Impossible, vampires are resistant to mind reading." Angel argued with the young man.

"Maybe only to a certain extent and this guy is really that powerful." Xander pointed out to the figure.

"Can we see how his fight with the government is going?" Buffy asked curiously.

Xander waved his hand over the flames and they saw a new image. The British Ministry of Magic was under attack the only thing was that aurors hit wizards and regular ministry workers were tossing spells back and forth at each other and at the army of demons that had been summoned to help. They saw Illyria standing high above with crossed arms watching the fight in a bored manner. "It does look like a mental assault, seems when ever some starts to realize what's going on and shoot spells at him they have a sudden migraine and then start fighting whoever is nearest to them." Xander pointed out. Unaware of the conflict many of them had as they watched a balding redhead shoot spells at a dark skinned man with a gold earring stud.

"So why was Fate unaffected and why didn't we become puppets?" Gryffindor questioned. "I have a high tolerance for things like the imperious curse I didn't think that there was anything stronger."

"That's because he wasn't trying to control you." Andrew explained as he watched. "I think he wanted to beat you down and show you just how pathetic you were compared to their power."

"So what was he doing then if he wasn't controlling us?" Gryffindor asked impatiently.

"He was slowing you down." Andrew explained to them. "The whole battle was just a joke to them. They were making you hesitate for a few seconds and then they would knock you down. Watch as the Lady Valkyrie the Mistress of the dead fights it out with Illyria the self healing." They all shot annoyed looks at the long winded name that the young man gave but turned and watched as Valkyrie sliced through the healer so easily in the first few strikes. The lone member of Illyria touched its hand to its head and they watched as reactions that had been fast slowed down enough that sure blocks were now batted aside and the heroine found herself being sliced into.

"Your right they were cheating." Valkyrie growled angrily slamming her fist onto a nearby anvil they all watched as it cracked down the middle. "Can you do anything about it?"

"Of course we can, that's why they sent the Blessed ones here." Andrew responded for the pair. "It is their most holy and sacred duty to keep the heroes of the world armed with the very best in weaponry. They perform the duty for the slayer so it is only natural that they would perform the same duty for yourselves."

"What do you need from us?" Fire asked curiously.

"Well for non perverted reasons I need your clothing sizes and your costumes so that I can fix the damage that you've received." Xander informed them.

"Only two of us are actually wearing armor though." Gryffindor argued back.

"Yeah and look just where it's gotten you mate." George informed him. "Your clothes may absorb magic and dragon fire but when it comes to getting hit you need something more." Gryffindor nodded his head in acceptance.

George waved his hand and two screens appeared for the armored girls to change behind. The girls shook their heads before Katie slammed her fist to the ground causing a circle of flames to surround them that them from view. When the flames died both girls were dressed differently. Katie was wearing cotton shirt and shorts while Buffy was wearing a toga. The two girls ignored the smirks of their friends as they watched the men set the discarded armor onto a pair of dummies. The others reluctantly then gave out the requested information.

"So what do we do in the meantime? I mean is there anything that we can do?" Fate questioned the two men after they had all of the information that they needed.

"Not much really, other than train and learn what you can about these guys." George told the red and gold figure.

"Very well." Fate agreed.

"Xander is there a way for the others to come down here, or do we have to go to them?" Buffy asked her friend.

"Huh, oh yeah I can have the guys brought down here since home sweet hellmouth is kind of on the restricted list for you. Besides the military is still looking for you and I doubt that they would just let you go if you told them there were demons taking over various world magical governments and you were only here to get your gear repaired." Xander said with a sneer. "They told us point blank that there was a detain order for you and that assisting you would be breaking federal law. Don't even get me started on the weekly checkups or listening devices we have to deal with all the time. They must really think that your valuable."

"Great to know the lengths that they'll go to try and control me." Buffy returned with a scowl. Have they done anything to the rest of you?

"Nah, they know that we're the best chance that they have on finding you so they won't let anyone mess with us other than threats. There's even a couple of soldiers that Faith likes to sleep with that are soldiers."

"So she knows that they're soldiers and are doing stuff with her because they're trying to find me right?" Buffy questioned nervously.

"Yeah she knows, and they know that she knows that they know that she know. Doesn't stop them from doing it though and telling us all about it either." Xander said with a disgruntled look. "Course every now and then she makes them regret their assignment by nearly breaking them. They're not nearly as cocky then."

"So I've been patient, and there's something that you haven't told me. How's mom?" Buffy said her eyes looking at her friend desperate for information on the woman.

"Mrs. S is good." Xander assured his friend. "When the time comes I'll drop her down here as well and you can talk to her as well. Then with her and Giles you can figure things out and get your mom time." The young man promised her.

"Yeah I'm hoping Giles can tell us something about whatever those things were. Buffy said hopefully they totally knocked us out.

Just remember that they were using freaky mind powers that you weren't prepared for." Xander told her. "Now that you know what to expect from them you can teach them what happens when they mess with you." He said flashing her a supportive grin.

"You really think so Buffy questioned I mean before I always had you guys to at least help me figure out what it is that I had to do now I'm not having you to back me up so much.

"That's cause you got yourself a new group." The young man told her. "Now go on. I already called Giles and he should be coming from that hallway." He told her nodding toward a tunnel. Buffy smiled at him before she rushed down to the tunnel while Xander turned to look to the others who were discussing how they might turn the next battle in their favor.

Buffy waited in the large tunnel that her friend had told her to and smiled as she saw a familiar figure hobbling toward her. Despite the cane that he was leaning heavily on there was no way that he could hide his uptight Britishness from her. It might also have been the pile of books that he had under his arm to though. This man was one of only a handful of people that she actually trusted. "Hey, oh Watcher of mine." She greeted from where she was standing. The older man looked up and smiled at her as he was engulfed in a hug. The watcher awkwardly wrapped his filled hands around the petite powerhouse.

The pair stood there for a few minutes just enjoying being in each other's arms. "It's good to see you again Buffy." Giles told the champion. "I was almost afraid that I would never see you again. The ex Watcher told his former charge with a fond smile.

Buffy merely smiled at him in return. "Come on, you didn't really think that I was that easy to get rid of now did you?" She asked him with humor in her voice.

Giles smiled at her fondly. "I take it that it that this is not a social visit and that you are the one that Xander needs help in researching something for then?" He asked Buffy dryly as he adjusted his glasses.

"You know it Watcher man." She returned to him. "If there's something to hit I'm your girl, but if it's of the research variety I know better than to try and do your job. Although I think I am better than I used to be. Besides there's no one better for the whole research thing than having your very own Giles figure things out for you." Buffy assured him.

"Well it is nice to be appreciated." Giles returned glad that she felt like she still needed him."So what is it that you are fighting this time around?" He asked as they began walking down the tunnel.

"Some group calling themselves the Illyria." Buffy returned to him going into a more professional mode. She was very happy that she could remember the name this time around. The training under Chiron had forced her to understand the powers that names had. He had made her understand that while mangling an enemies name on the battlefield to rile them up was alright continuing to do so while investigating their origins was stupid. The fact that she had started making the name mockeries to help her remember the basic sounds of the name when she couldn't keep track during a fight was the only reason that she hadn't been in too much trouble when he had found out that particular habit of hers. The punishment for every time she had skewed a name had resulted in her being chased by satyrs and writing a detailed paper on the person whose name she messed up.

"Good, I'll see what I can discover." Giles said proud that she was not using silly nicknames anymore. It seemed that his Slayer was growing up. "However I am somewhat surprised. I thought with your enhanced abilities that there would be very little that would be capable of actually slowing you down anymore. And the only reason you ever came to me in the past is because you were having trouble killing it."

"Yeah that's because none of us were able to kill them." Fate said from where he stood. "Despite the fact that we all seem to be much more powerful than most supernatural things."

"I see, and you are?" Giles questioned.

"I am Fate." The red and gold figure returned. "Over there are Gryffindor, and Fire, Valkyrie is the blonde over there inspecting her sword. Then there is Blade in the corner over there." The figure said pointing toward a figure in the shadows.

Giles turned and raised his eyebrows as he recognized the pale figure stepping into the light. "Angel." Giles greeted him coolly. He knew that the vampire had done many things to help atone for his past crimes but he didn't think that he would ever be able to trust the figure before him like his slayer did. The dark clad figure nodded his head in greeting to the man. Giles then turned to face the others and spoke to them in much more welcoming tones. "I am Rupert Giles. I suppose you could say that I'm the head of research here. I help in the training by telling heroes how to kill something when time is of the essence. It is my specialty you might say just as Xander and Mr. Weasley are our weapon specialists. Now then, what is it that you know about you opponents?"

"They were all scientists or prodigies in various fields." Angel answered once it became apparent that no one else knew anything about their victims. "They were all kidnapped by various means by the cult of Illyria from various places in the world."

"Wait, I thought they all called themselves Illyria though?" Gryffindor interrupted from where he was standing.

"I'll explain if you'll keep your questions to yourself until I'm finished." Angel told him coolly before going back to what he had been saying. "Only the best and brightest were taken though. The regenerator was some sort of medical genius, a kid by the name of Doogie Howser, the plant manipulator was some biologist from Russia. Like I said they came from all over the world. They're not the real powers behind this though. From what I got from some of the people that I questioned they were taken for their minds. The souls of these people would be sacrificed and then they would become something more. Whatever this something new is I'm hoping that this is all that they are. I'm not real sure that we could stand it if this was just the start with them."

"I see." Giles said saddened to hear that these bodies were now no longer any more alive than a vampire's was. "You said that they all called themselves Illyria?" He asked the group wanting to clarify every tidbit of information that he could.

"Yes, they all called themselves that." Fate agreed.

"Most interesting." Giles said as he began flipping through one of his books. "Disturbing but interesting. It will take time before I can find out just what it is that we're dealing with here. I would recommend all of you resting for as much as you can while I see if I can't find anything on our enemies. Xander and George are working on their part by doing whatever it is that they do. I would recommend that you stay out of sight and down here though as the military is somewhat aware that we fight demons and is always looking for a way to gain control over us. If they were to become aware of any of you the neutrality that we have would likely be broken and they would make several attacks. Having super soldiers is something they've been working on for years."

"Do you think that they could beat us?" Gryffindor asked sounding somewhat insulted but he was also looking around nervously. The young hero obviously did not enjoy the prospect of being caged.

"I honestly don't know. I do know that they have been working on several experimental weapons though in case Buffy should ever choose to come back to this area." Giles returned. Last time they sent over a hundred men after her at the hospital before she managed to escape. These same men were ones that she had saved not 12 hours earlier."

"And where are we anyways?" Fire asked curiously as her eyes tried to take everything in.

"You're in an underground bunker slash forge near the hellmouth in California of the USA." George supplied from where he was looking at the various cuts and dents in the armor of the girls. In his hands were parchment and quill as he was making a list of protective spells to add to the outfits. Xander was nearby but was making a list of things to do for the armor he would have to build for the others.

"Yes, and while you're waiting there are certain things that you need to do." Giles said. "Wesley will come down here to help train you in teamwork in combat. It's obvious from the way you all are standing around that there may be teams within teams." He shot a look at Buffy and Angel first his eyes then sliding toward Gryffindor and Fire before turning back to the others. "But as a group you have no cohesion."

"Do you really think Wesley can do that Giles?" Buffy asked looking skeptical on that one.

"Indeed I do." Giles said confidently. "He scored extremely high on his strategy tests. In fact it was part of the reason that he was pressed into service so early in life. Most Watchers do not get a Slayer until their thirties or forties at the very least. Due to his high scores though he was able to be slipped in. His lack of experience in real life is what made him so easy for Travers to manipulate."

"So Wesley knows this stuff then and can probably help out?" Buffy still looked dubious, but the assured nod from Giles and the relieved smile of Angel on hearing that his friend was in Sunnydale convinced her to give the man a chance before she made any rash decisions. "Fine, but I reserve the right to say I told you so if he can't do the job."

"Fair enough." Giles returned. "I would suggest resting for now though. Come tomorrow we will all have plenty of things to do. From research to training."

"Yeah sleep would be nice." Katie agreed with the man.

"Good, now all of you go rest." Giles ordered them waving them off. "Come tomorrow you will have much to do."

"So where can we find beds in this hotel of yours?" Fate asked with amusement.

"If you'll follow us we'll take you to your rooms." George said with a smirk as he tried to act like the arrogant hotel man but not quiet making it work. The redheaded man then led part of the group while Xander led the others to various rooms that they could use for sleeping.

Fire sighed as the door to her room shut and she allowed her fire form to finally die down and she was in her human state once again. Normally she didn't feel so week after her transformation but after the battle and all the information that they had gotten that night her mind was somewhat overwhelmed. She smiled as she saw her bed she removed most of her clothes before she tiredly pulled her wand and transfigured her shirt into a giant night shirt. Without another thought the witch collapsed onto the bed and was out. The other magic users followed suit as with waves of their wands they had new clothes. Angel and Buffy of course had to do things the regular way but a care package from Xander to each of them had them in their own sleep garments before they drifted off as well.

The next morning they all woke up and quickly changed their clothes back to what they were before they went to sleep. Fire also added a half mask that covered her face. The fact that she had long green silky hair meant she wasn't afraid of anyone recognizing her through that. They all headed back to the room from the night before and were amazed to see the giant workbenches that had been covered in tools were now laden down with various breakfast foods. The wizards all thought that it was comparable to what Mrs. Weasley would prepare. Buffy smiled knowing exactly who made this food while Angel merely watched in surprise. The surprises weren't over though he thought as he watched various people filter into the room carrying more food to place on the table. Wesley, Cordellia, Faith, Giles, Willow, and Andrew were all there. Alongside of them though there were a few others there was a blonde woman who was nervously adjusting something, Anya the former vengeance demon that Xander had briefly dated Spike and a short dark haired young man.

"Jonathan?" Buffy said in surprise at seeing the mage. He was good with illusionary spells more than anything else as she recalled. Although he had once made all of Sunnydale believe that he was the best thing since chocolate he was really fairly harmless.

"Hi Buffy," the small man said with a weak smile. He looked at her nervously as if afraid that she would attack him but she merely smiled at him before looking at the others. "Tara good to see you again." She said as she gave a hug to the other blonde. "Spike." She said curtly.

"Slayer," the vampire said before a smirk came over his face. "Only you ain't the Slayer anymore are you?" The bleach blonde questioned her. "What do I call you now? There's always Wonder, or maybe Wondy." The vampire sneered at her.

Buffy stepped forward and lifted him by his throat. She then looked over at Faith and Xander. "Do you mind if I throw him into the wall?" She asked them curiously. Xander merely grinned while Faith gave a casual uncaring shrug to the fate of the vampire.

"Buffy Summers, you put Spike down this instant you are going to behave like a civilized person during meals. Do I make myself clear young lady?" Joyce said glaring at her daughter.

Spike grinned as the blonde powerhouse very reluctantly set him down. "The big bad Champion of the Greeks taken down by a glare from her mum." The bleached vampire said.

George drew his wand and shot a spell at the obnoxious vampire turning his hair pink. Buffy nodded her thanks to the wizard as she turned to face her mom. "Hey," she said with a weak smile before launching herself into her mother's arms. "I'm so sorry I didn't call or write. I was scared. I didn't want them coming after you and I didn't know how to get a letter to you without making them suspicious."

"It's alright Buffy." Joyce said as she merely held her daughter and rubbed her back as the girl let the tears fly. The other heroes casually turned away and began filling their plates while the two women held onto each other comforted in the feel of each other being there. Words weren't needed as worries that they both had over the fate of the other were now forgotten. "Come on now, let's get some food." Joyce said with a smile. "I made chocolate chip pancakes for you and the others." Buffy smiled as the woman led her to the tables of food.

As they sat down to eat Angel found himself being shoved into a chair next to an irate Cordy. The vampire swallowed nervously. He would never tell the young woman but he thought of her as his own Joyce and knew that he was in for a good telling off from the set of her face. "Alright you, explain." She said to him. "Explain to me why you just took up and left us in the hospital while you went and did something stupid like blowing up Wolfram and Hart without so much as a real plan. I thought that you had learned to not charge in like an idiot unless you had to. I mean seriously that kind of lame brain stunt was more like something Buffy or Xander would do." The girl said. Everyone watched as the long legged girl then spent the next five minutes berating the dark figure for his plan. "And don't think that I've forgotten that you just went and left us either Buster." She said glaring at him. "I mean would it have been so hard to pick up the phone and call us or leave a note at the library about what was going on? Buffy couldn't because she didn't know if it was safe after the army boys decided to take potshots at her." The brunette turned to glare at the blonde. "Which reminds me Miss Slay-Gal, or whatever you're going by now having soldiers constantly bugging me is not amusing. Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass they're being? They also can't seem to understand why I don't want to date them. Like I would ever lower myself to taking any of your sloppy seconds." The girl said with a haughty sniff.

Buffy smiled at that. "Good to see you to Cordellia, although I think that some of your clothes look off the rack. Is being less common really that hard on you?"

"At least I don't try and kill everyone I know." Cordellia returned.

"Says the girl who got couldn't figure out how to use a stake." Buffy shot back.

"Um should we stop them?" Fire questioned as she watched the two angry girls snipe at each other and give each other death glares.

"Are you kidding?" Angel asked her as he watched the pair. "The longer they're arguing the less time they have to be angry at me. Besides with one of them capable of taking out a dragon I think I prefer this method."

The two girls heads whipped around at that their own argument stopped for the moment. "Busted," Xander, George, Andrew, and Jonathan muttered as they watched the glares focus on the former vampire.

"Blondie had an excuse, so what's your excuse since there were no soldiers hunting you?" Cordellia asked in a huff.

Buffy joined in alongside of her. "Yeah and the bimbo was a part of your team and don't you think it would have been helpful if I knew that you were no longer there to help me? Unless you're going to say that you already knew I was no longer in Sunnydale at the time?" She challenged him arching an eyebrow at him.

The glare she sent him made Angel glad he knew nothing of her leaving. Still though there was no way to answer that one without getting in trouble so he remained silent.

"It's a good thing he's already dead." Spike said with a large grin as the others were watching the usually stoic figure being torn to shreds by the double team of his best friend and ex-girlfriend. "If he wasn't, I don't think that they'd have any trouble taking him out right now. I mean everyone knows the story of those two birds and the Slay-Fest right?" The vampire asked the others. The new comers turned to listen as a story of surviving a gauntlet of hired killers while the pair in question continued to scold the dark haired figure that was looking for the best way to get out of the hole he had dug himself in.

"I do hope that you are done now." Wesley said after the story ended. "Because we do have a schedule to work with." The two girls each gave the vampire dark looks before setting themselves back into their seats. "Good now that that's done we can get to work." The hunter informed them all. "With the assistance of the others I have managed to come up with a list of the known abilities that your group has. I see some rather good methods to begin working on training you in working as a team. There is much you can all benefit from each other working as a team. You all have a combination of ranged and close up attacks the only thing is that you need to learn to use this skills in a group. Your heavy long ranged hitters appear to be Fire, Fate, and Gryffindor. Wonder Woman on the other hand…"

"Amazon." Buffy cut in quickly. "There are a lot of things I am, but Wonder Woman I'm not. I think Amazon describes me better though." She said confidently.

"I could of told you that you weren't Wonder Woman. I mean you needed magic to even get close to the right height whereas I am all natural in the height and chest department." Cordellia snarked to the other girl. The two gave each other glares but kept quiet otherwise.

"Thank you Buffy, and I think your right, Amazon does seem to fit you much better than the moniker of Wonder Woman." Giles said approvingly as he tried to get the pair to stop their fighting.

"Yes thank you." Wesley agreed. "Now then Amazon, and Blade, are the best mid range fighters we have with the guns and magic lasso that you use. Gryffindor, Fate, Valkyrie, and Amazon are our physically strongest but Blade Amazon and Valkyrie are likely our best fighters due to where their skills come from. Unless of course any of you have any other gifts or abilities that we are unaware of that could change things that is?" The Watcher looked the heroes over curiously.

"I have a wand that I use in Dragonfang." Katie said as she ejected the wand from her blade.

"I have a wand in my staff as well that helps charge my blasts with even more power." Gryffindor responded. It's a legendary wand known as the Elder wand."

"You have the Elder wand?" Fate asked in surprise. "That is indeed a most powerful if not the most wand."

"Yeah it's a bloody menace to though." Gryffindor returned to him as he drew the white wand out of his staff. "The only way to gain control of it is to either steal it or win it in a duel which means the owner is either always fighting or always afraid of having it stolen. The added power it gives you in a duel is really not worth the pain it gives you."

"The legendary Elder wand, or better known as the Death Stick." Giles said as he looked at the weapon in fascination. "The Council actually had possession of it for a while before it was stolen from us. Simply remarkable, one of the legendary gifts of death." The man mused before turning back to his books.

"I have a wand as well but in my elemental form I am incapable of using it." Fire said looking slightly put out about that.

"So there are four magic users in the group then." Wesley stated nodding his head as he began making notes on a piece of paper. "We might be able to use that to our advantage I'm hoping. With Fire she may have a secondary method of attacking if she grows weak from using her elemental abilities as long as they are not connected to your magic that is." He looked at her questioning hoping she would know the answer to this question.

"I don't know, but it is something that needs to be addressed." Fire agreed. "It would be an interesting theory." Katie and Fate watched the green haired woman suspiciously there was something eerily familiar about the way the young woman was prattling about the connections between magical ability and her elemental powers.

"Yes, we'll look into that. Willow and Tara would probably be the best to look into that actually." Wesley noted glancing at the wiccans who nodded thei heads in agreement.

"Why them just out of curiosity?" Fire asked looking the two older girls.

"Of course, Tara comes from a family line of wiccan users while Willow is one of the potentially strongest witches to exist." Wesley explained to the wand witch. "It's only because of her injuries that she doesn't do much."

"Yeah I was injured in a fight about a year ago." Willow explained sadly as she looked at her arm. There were still several scars on her even after all this time. "The result was severe nerve damage which makes doing most forms of magic very dangerous for me." The redhead looked grim at this. "However I have managed to channel my magic into spells that don't require any of the hand gestures. I'm nearly to the level where the others think that I can be of use patrolling again." She said proudly.

"Really, that's great Will's what types of magic do you use now?" Buffy asked her friend glad to see that the redhead was able to rejoin the fight after all of the wounds that she had. She had seen her arms twitch from time to time all morning and wondered if there was nothing to be done for her.

"Instead of the ritual style magics that require magic circles I only use telekinesis and elemental spells." Willow explained to her friend. "They're technically beginner spells, but with a little work I've managed to do things like form element balls around me and use them for my fighting."

"So you're back to throwing stakes with your mind again then?" Buffy said with a smile.

"Yeah, along with fire, water, earth, and air." The redhead said with a smile glad that she could still use her abilities even if it was in a much more limited way than she had before. "No spells that require hand gestures though as they're too dangerous for me to use. I may never be a big gun, but I'll be powerful enough to fight vamps from a distance."

"Very cool." Buffy said as she eyed her friend glad that her injuries hadn't taken her completely out of the slaying game.

"Yes, now then for you to train you will need to spar against each other and train as a team. This way you'll know the best way to fight as you will know how the other members of the group react. Xander and George told me that they will be dealing with the telepathic abilities in the armor designs that they're working on. We have to hurry though because every day that we take in preparing you to combat these things. The longer they have to get stronger."

"So let's get to it then." Gryffindor said rising from his seat.

"Agreed, now if you'll all head down to the training room we can begin preparing you for the coming battle." Wesley ushered the group down into the tunnels so that they could begin their training.

For the next week the military watched as the protectors of Sunnydale and the world seemed to be even more busy than normal. They were always running in and out performing various tasks and when they weren't doing that there were long periods of time that none of them could be seen no matter what they did. They had always suspected that there was some method that the group used to 'conduct their real business this seemed to be the proof that they needed. To make it even worse there didn't seem to be anyway to trace them. They had planted a number of tracking devices on the group whenever they could but they always seemed to fail. Whatever was going on it seemed that it was more important to them than hiding the fact that they were capable of beating many of their tracking methods. If this continued they would have to find another method of tracking them. For all they knew Summers had reappeared and their orders were to capture on sight. Live ammo was issued in dealing with her and they were cleared for dead if there was no other choice. Deep below in the newest Scooby central they all trained. Tactics were discussed, sparring was done so that they could anticipate the movements of others. Giles and Wesley had watched Buffy who had gone from a brawler before she left to something deadly and graceful with all the powers of a demi god. It was truly awe inspiring. Chiron who had spent the years high above waiting in the stars until he was needed again had seen many wars and many battles and had all of the knowledge of what they had done within his head. He had given Buffy the basics for many new combat styles that she was working into her own style. The others were amazing as well though. Amazon and Gryffindor seemed to be tied for raw strength, while Valkyrie and Fate came after them. The sheer power that the group had was truly astounding.

Buffy had just finished one particularly rough training session under her new trainers and turned and looked at the figure waiting for her to finish. "Faith," the blonde said.

"Hey B." The Slayer said a bit uncomfortably. "I hear that the armor is almost ready." She said casually. The pair hadn't really talked alone since the group had gotten here as there was always someone there watching over them to make sure the normal clash of their personalities and feelings didn't erupt. It was so bad that they wouldn't even allow the two to spar in case one or the other tried to take it too far.

"That's what they say." Buffy returned neutrally.

"Look B I'm no good at this crap, but I came to apologize for everything. I know it doesn't mean much to you and all but I am trying." Faith said. "I had to fight for every inch of respect I was given here from both your friends and the demons. It's taken nearly a year for them to accept me. The demons were easy as all I had to do was kill enough of them and they accepted me. The others weren't as easy to please though." She said sourly.

"They're alive and seem to be doing okay." Buffy returned to her. "You tried to kill them and if there's something that they have its long memories. You on the other hand don't look as well." She said nodding to a scar that was on the slayers arm. Buffy knew that the scar went from her shoulder to her wrist.

"The demon just got lucky." Faith defended herself.

"Just remember the first rule and you'll be fine." Buffy returned to her as she walked by the girl. "Oh and Faith," she said pausing midstride. "You seem to be doing a good job." The girl then continued on not even bothering to look behind her.

Faith smiled and nodded. Not very many words had been exchanged between the pair but it had been enough for them to feel as if they could continue without having to worry about each other.

* * *

Three days, it had taken Giles three days of nearly nonstop research with the help of most of the other Sunnydalers with the occasional bout of help from the heroes when they weren't too tired. Fire had been extremely helpful as she had gone through the books with a fury. Gryffindor had followed her lead and read diligently at her side. That didn't matter though, since he had finally found what he was searching for. He rushed out of the library and down the tunnels until he reached the training room and forced the doors open. "I've found it!" He cried before ducking as Amazon was tossed through the open doors and Fire nearly singed him and his book while trying to hit Fate.

"Stop!" Wesley ordered and looked toward the other Watcher curiously. "Is there something that you needed Rupert?"

"More like something you need." Giles returned ignoring the younger man's annoyance. "I know what it is that they'll be fighting."

"All right another win for Giles." Buffy cheered her former mentor.

"Very well, I think that is a good reason to interrupt a training session." The other man admitted. "I propose an intermission while we all listen to Mr. Giles information on our enemy."

The others nodded their heads in agreement as they slumped to the floor. "Yes," Giles said as he held a large book up. "When I first heard the name Illyria I thought that it sounded familiar but I had to check some things out first. It turns out I had read about this Illyria before."

"Alright that's nice, but who or what the bloody hell are they?" Katie asked in annoyance.

Giles ignored the interruption and continued on as if she hadn't spoken. "The Illyria is found in some of the books that we took from the Master Buffy. Some of his books on his gods." He said rather pointedly getting Angel to look up at him in disbelief. "There is also a reference to the Illyria in the books of Ascension." He added.

"The books of Ascension?" Buffy said in disbelief as everyone who had been there or seen an Ascension tensed up. "As in the same books that taught the mayor how to become a full demon lord?"

"Precisely," Giles said as he held a picture of a blue creature for all of them to see. "Illyria was the leader and king of the Old Ones. It was the most powerful and cruel of all of the Old Ones. Its power I would imagine is too great for simply one body which is why it is using multiples bodies at once to spread the power out."

"So how do we beat it?" Katie questioned.

"It will be hard, as there were no known weaknesses. However extreme blasts of power have been known to kill or weaken such creatures. I would suggest taking the head off though." Giles said.

"Then the host bodies are dead and they're nothing more than possessed corpses then?" Angel questioned looking somewhat discouraged he had hoped that he would be able to save them from their possessions but if anything it sounded even more final than being turned into a vampire.

"No I'm afraid there's nothing we can do to save them." Giles agreed sending a sympathetic look toward the Daywalker.

"So we need to take them down fast and hard then." Gryffindor noted.

"Like we had much choice before the only difference is that we're going to have to go in for the kill when we attack them." Buffy noted. "The others all nodded their heads in agreement. Whatever the Illyria had once been they were no longer the same thing they were monsters that had to be put down now. For the moment they were happy with magical governments but sooner or later they would be going after the rest of the world and they had to stop them before that happened.

* * *

Xander smiled as he looked at everyone gathered in the main room of the workshop. "Well folks we've really outdone ourselves this time I'd like to think." The Blessed figure told them with a grin. "First we'd like to thank Fate without him we never would have managed to do what we have. Since he knew where we could find Pendragon scales though we managed to make some of the shiniest and most durable armor around." The pair pulled walked toward some ropes that we're hanging and tugged. A large rock moved to the side showing several suits of armor. "While the stuff you were wearing filled my inner fan boy with awe and joy there is simply no denying that for serious fights like the one you got coming that you can't be wandering around with so much flesh exposed."

"At least not against these guys, afterwards you can go back to the old style though." George said. They came up to the Amazon armor first. "We've added a heavier chest plate that will cover your front and back along with arm and leg guards. So a hit or a block there means that they're hitting armored body parts instead of that lovely body of yours. We also have a Greek helmet that should allow you to block the mental attacks and keep your head safe." He added as he handed the Greek Champion a Spartan helmet.

"Yeah, I figured that this would be better than the bird armor that the comics usually use." Xander said with a grin as he handed Buffy a picture of what her armor could have looked like. On the paper was a picture of Wonder Woman's Kingdom Come armor.

"Um why does it have wings? I thought Wonder Woman didn't need wings to fly?" Buffy questioned her friend.

"Not sure," Xander said shrugging, "and I didn't think you would want a giant bird head for a helmet either so I did away with those things. I'm going to guess it's more ceremonial or decorative than anything else."

"Thanks Xander." Buffy said as she slammed her wrists together and there was a flash of light and Buffy stood before them wearing her original armor. "And here I was getting used to a quick change." The blonde complained.

"Think about the new armor when you slam your wrists together." Xander ordered.

The blonde nodded and tried again and this time another flash of light happened but she was now wearing her upgraded armor. Perfect she declared as she performed a few stretches to find out her range of motion.

"Valkyrie we did a lot of the same for your armor. Arm and shin guards, added in with new and heavier duty chest plate that covers more of your body. We took your helmet and turned it into a psychic scrambler as well. George said as he displayed the next suit of armor." George explained to his friend.

The Aesir Champion smiled as she slammed her fist into the ground and a blue ring of fire surrounded her. A moment later she was dressed in the modified armor. "This is great thanks." Valkyrie said as she hugged her friend tightly.

"For Gryffindor and Fate we decided to go a different route and created English styled armor." Xander said as they walked toward two new sets of armor. "Since your clothes absorb magical energies then all we had to deal with was this. So we added heavy chest plates bracers boots mainly keeping the vitals protected." Xander explained to them. "It's easier than trying to create whole new sets of armor. For Gryffindor we put a Gryffin on his chest plate with carvings of talons and paws on the boots and gloves."

"We also went and added in a helmet." George added with a smile. "We based the helmet on later incarnations of what Captain Britain wore and based the helmet off his head gear." The helmet was golden and was like a hard hat that extended downward in the front and had two square slots for the eyes. "This thing is a lot better than the cloth mask that you get." The hero nodded his head in acceptance of the helmet. He looked at the chest plate and noticed on the back were engraved a pair of wings.

"As for you two, well we needed something a bit different." Xander said turning to the last members of the group. "For fang brains, we mainly just added some dragon hide body armor. It looks a lot like Kevlar armor only about five times more resistant and can block some minor spells. We also added a Batman utility belt to keep all of your toys in." The man said as he tossed the heavy leather and belt towards the vampire. "Andrew wanted to add a duster like the real Blade has but I told him that was Spike's gimmick not yours."

Angel nodded his thanks to Xander as he examined the body armor. "What do I use for a helmet?"

"We built you this motorcycle helmet that has all of the protections in it. Personally I wouldn't mind if they fried your mind though." Xander said as he tossed a helmet toward the former vampire.

"For Fire we managed to create a crown made entirely of pendragon scales. They have such a high melting point that we thought we could chance it. It should protect your mind from whatever it is that they throw at you."

George smiled. "And now for the extras. For our warrior girls we added some shields and Amazon now has a sword in case she needs it. It's not as good as Dragonfang, but that's a celestial weapon to." The redhead shrugged seeming unconcerned that they couldn't compete with weapons of that degree. "For Fire we added a staff that will better channel her powers it also has the ability to contain her wand just like some of the other weapons are capable of doing so. The staff is based off the one that the comic book character Fire Lord uses so it should work. For Blade we made a katana so that he could really be Blade if he so chose to use it." The dhampir nodded his thanks as he drew the sword and inspected it. "The rest of you already have weapons or don't need them." He said nodding to Fate.

"Yes," Wesley said as he now took the stage. "You've all been trained as best we can with the amount of time we have your not a true team but I think you can work together after this and win. After this though the magical world will know of all of your existences. Before Gryffindor was the only one known now you'll all be known to the magical government. Be careful in what you do. Survive this fight first though before you go around do anything else though."

The heroes all nodded at his words. "Alright then Fate, you ready to get us there?" Amazon questioned the main mystic.

"Ready." Fate agreed as he began creating an ankh to teleport them away. "We'll see you later." The mage said before the spell absorbed them all and they disappeared.

"Come on," Xander said as he activated his fire screen. "We might as well watch and see what happens. Besides you know the big guys are going to be watching as well." The others nodded as they prepared the last of their medical supplies before taking their seats.

**

* * *

**

Gryffindor's helmet is based on a SPECTACLE HELMET

**Amazon's is based off a Corinthian helmet. Think 300 helmet mine just doesn't have the horse hairs**

**Next chapter should be the final battle and chapter for this tale.**


	9. End of the Beginning

Final Battle

Final chapter for this one folks took forever it feels but its done! As usual the various characters do not belong to me. THey belong to Marvel comics, D.C comics, JKR, and of course Whedon. Enjoy!

* * *

The group of heroes wavered a bit as they looked around. They had not appeared in front of their enemies though but rather near the mountain that they were using as their base. The group looked on and saw that the army that had joined with the growing new power was just as large if not larger than it was the last time. Trolls, goblins, orcs giants, and various minor demons all wandered around in a kind of lazy guard. The creatures didn't seem to be overly worried about any type of attack. Wandering around the nonhuman army they could also see various types of magic users.

"This is not good." Valkyrie said as she turned to the others. "There is no way we can get down there without alerting the entire army down there that we're here and want a chance to take out their bosses."

"Your right, which means we need to either wait for them to come out, or find something that they want." Blade said as he watched from his own spot. "We also need to hurry, the sun will be setting soon and when that happens we'll also have to deal with the vampires and other nocturnal creatures as well."

"It's simple enough; we know what it is that they want." Amazon said with a smirk. "They want us as their own little pets remember? At least that's what the ones that Valkyrie and I were fighting said." The Grecian Champion said nodding to her silver clad sister warrior.

The others looked at the blonde in disbelief. "Are you sure it's that easy?" Fate asked the others not sure that they should believe that they could draw their enemy out so easily. "I mean do you really think that they'll go for it? What if they just have their army bring us to them?"

"We ask them if they can't beat us on their own." Blade said with a smirk. "That way, they'll have to come down to us or they'll have even more than usual of people trying to take them down from their thrones. In a kingdom like this weakness usually means death. If someone thinks that they're scared of you then they'll make sure that they're your ally in this sort of thing." The Champion of the Morrigan explained to the Champion of Egypt.

"So we either challenge them to a fight or we wade our way through this whole mess." Fire said gesturing to the army. "Can we pick one though instead of sitting here though? Honestly the longer we sit here the more likely it is that we'll be discovered and then we'll have to fight our way through the army."

"Easy there Fire." Gryffindor said trying to comfort the girl, yet her flames made her untouchable. He then looked at the others. "So what's our move?"

"We call them out, there is no other way for it. After we beat the Illyria we'll probably have to beat up their army as well though." Amazon explained with a grin as if she could hardly wait for the fight. "Once we do that we go back to see the others and party. It's really rather simple if you don't try and complicate it with maps and stuff." Blade shot her a look that she ignored.

Valkyrie nodded her head. "I like that plan." The Aesir champion said with a grin.

"My wife is so going to hurt me for getting involved in all of this." Fate informed them in a resigned voice. "We're seriously saying come make us your slaves if you can. Is the best battle plan that we can come up with? What happens if we lose? I might not be able to get us all away this time they weren't expecting me to use that trick last time."

"Then we try something else." Amazon informed him in a cool voice. "First rule is not to die. After that just about anything goes."

"Yeah, and what's the second rule?" Fate questioned.

"Do you really need more rules than that?" Amazon asked the armored mage with interest. "If you beat the big bad and live to see the victory party then there is nothing else to worry about."

"There are always consequences and rules though." Fate argued with the warrior. "It's what allows us to do what we do. If there were no rules then we wouldn't be here in the first place."

Blade smirked at that. "Those are the rules of balance not the rules of slaying Fate. You need to learn the difference between them. Right now the only rule you need to worry about is not dying. After that we'll worry about the rules of magic and balance though." He assured the other man.

Fate still seemed reluctant but nodded his head in agreement. "Fine, how do we manage this then?"

"Blade and I do the stealthy thing and see if we can't get in on our own. Once we're in we find the bad guys and we make a commotion so that you know where we are and can trace our signal and teleport toward us and we take them out like that. "Does that plan work better for you?" The blonde smirked at Fate cockily amused at how easy Fate had believed in her suggestion on volunteering to give themselves up.

"It is the best we'll probably get." Fire agreed with them. "But are you the best for the job? I mean I remember seeing some of the stealth methods you have but can you slip into a base like that? They might have wards up." She pointed out to them cautiously.

"In which case they'll be on alert, but can't see us." Blade returned to the elemental. "There is nothing else to do about that though. You've all said it yourselves your magicals that believe in the best way from moving from one spot or the other is to teleport or fly. The two of us are used to moving in the shadows when we need to. If anyone of us has a chance of slipping by all of the guards it's us." He told the group nodding to the former slayer. "The rest of you need to be ready for when we give the signal."

"They're right you know." Andrew's voice said. "Blade and Amazon have the best chance of sneaking into someone's stronghold than any of the rest of you do. If we were just going to blow through them then we would send Amazon, Fate, Gryffindor, and Valkyrie. That however is not the case we need to exercise caution that only years of battling vampires has given to Blade and Amazon."

"Andrew where are you, and how are we able to hear you?" Valkyrie questioned as she began looking around for wherever the blonde geek was hiding out.

"Oh I'm not really there, I am going to be your Oracle for this fight though." The young man's voice replied cheerfully. "Xander here has us watching the fight with his flames and I'm going to be acting as advisor for you since he really can't do anymore than that. So I'll be acting as the person to relay information back and forth between you, and hopefully keep you out of trouble."

The group of heroes shook their heads in bemusement at this. They admitted that it was a good plan but they wished that they had known about the plan before Andrew had started talking. "Why aren't any of the others acting in the advisor capacity?" Fate questioned curiously. "I imagine that anyone of them would be able to manage that."

"Well because I'm letting them work on finding the information in their books and I'm the best with a computer in the room." Andrew replied to them. "I am also the most knowledgeable in superhero combat styles meaning that I should be of more help than some of the others might be."

"Alright just be careful." Gryffindor said gruffly. "We don't need you trying to prove yourself somehow and getting yourself killed." Gryffindor shook his head. The excitable young man reminded him so much of Colin Creevey at times.

"Understood." Andrew said happily, glad that they weren't going to argue with him over who was best suited to run the operations center.

"Amazon and Blade are good to go. All of the enemy flyers are currently grounded. Either they want someone to attack them or they've gotten cocky."

"Thanks Advisor." Amazon returned with a nod of her head she and Blade turned to head over the ledge.

"Hold," Fate said stopping the pair from leaving. "Perhaps we can draw them out." He suggested to the group. "It would be better if the fight was on our terms not theirs."

"Do you really think that we can draw them out?" Valkyrie questioned him. "Advisor what do the people at base think?"

"Unknown, we don't really have enough information on the Illyria to know how they would respond if they were to see us. And it's not Advisor its Oracle." Andrew returned to her.

"Advisor sounds better." Valkyrie returned to him.

"How do you want to draw them out then?" Blade asked curiously. "If we did choose the battleground we could prepare it with some surprises that might give us the advantage that we need." He pointed out.

"Gryffindor, Fire, Amazon, and Valkyrie lead them to your position while you and Fate prepare whatever spells and other things that you need to welcome them with." Advisor said as he figured a plan out for them to use. "Either the attack draws the Illyria out or it draws their troops out. If it draws the troops out Fate teleports you all into the base and if the troops are busy being hit by the explosives then they'll be weakened and fewer by the time they get back and no one would dare interfere in your battle if you were already fighting by then. If they decide to chase you then you fight them there and use whatever surprises to give yourselves a chance to get in the first hits."

"Sounds like the best plan of all of the ones that have been offered." Fire noted. "We do a flyby and cause all sorts of problems and then leave while the others setup here."

"Alright let's get to work then." Blade said as he began pulling out various explosives while Fate began making hand gestures and rocks glowed with a runic symbol before fading to look like normal rocks.

"We'll go around too give you a bit more time." Valkyrie said as she whistled and her Pegasus appeared. Mounting her steed she checked her weapons and armor one last time.

"Let's go." Gryffindor ordered and they all flew off away from the base.

The group circled around and were soon charging at the base from the opposite direction. "Everyone spread out!" Amazon ordered the attack group. "We want as much damage in as short amount of time as possible." The others nodded as they readied their weapons. "Fire!" The blonde ordered as she plowed through a tent. Fire pointed one end of her staff and shot a stream of flames while Gryffindor and Valkyrie both fired raw magical power from their own weapons into the camp. The fortress was a mess of alarms as various creatures tried to get out of the way. Amazon slammed through a group of giants knocking them out of the way like bowling pins. Her lasso snapped out and caught one of them by the leg and she began dragging it behind her. The magical attacks of others continued to sow confusion in the army of supernatural beings. The group then broke through to the other side and continued onward toward where their allies were hidden. Amazon smirked as she snapped her lasso and the giant that she held prisoner was freed and sent tumbling back into the army.

"Move!" Gryffindor said from his place in the rear as he let loose with a blast from his staff. They watched as the devastating beam blasted a small hole into the oncoming army of dark forces. The group flew as fast as they could while staying together as a group.

"My turn." Fire said as she noticed that they were closing in. Twirling her staff as the people on the hellmouth had instructed her she created a tornado of flames and aimed it toward the army that were weakened even more by the controlled inferno that seemed to tear through the forces. Those that were fireproof though leaped through the flames and came charging onward.

"Hurry up the wizards are joining!" Valkyrie said pointing toward several figures on brooms that were zipping toward them. The other two nodded and joined a waiting Fate and Blade. "Open the portal." The Aesir Champion called out as she fired a beam of energy into the crowd.

The group landed and Fate opened one of his Ankh shaped portals Blade pulled a detonator from his jacket and pushed the button on it before stepping into the portal. Explosives and runes erupted as the energy from the two blew into the army of magical creatures and magic users.

The Ankh appeared in front of the small fortress. "Alright, let's find them, beat them and go home." Amazon told her companions who nodded their heads in agreement with the tasks that they now had.

"You won't have far to go to find us muck." The voices echoed around them as the various members of the Illyria appeared before them.

"I take it that you were expecting us then?" Gryffindor questioned as he readied himself for the upcoming fight as he readied his sword and staff.

"We know your kind well enough Champion of Merlin. We know that your kind will fight until there is no one left that threaten the world that you cherish so much." Illyria responded to the figure.

"Fine, so you knew we were coming. Can we get to this already?" Blade questioned as he drew his sword out.

"Very well half breed champion, we will be pleased to bathe in your blood and turn the others into pets." The Illyria informed the former vampire.

"Try it." Blade said as he drew a rifle off of his back and squeezed a burst off at the group. A portal opened up in return and absorbed the bullets before another one opened spitting the bullets back out. Vaalkyrie easily deflected the incoming attack and knocked the bullets away with her shield.

"Don't go in there half cocked." Andrew warned them. "Amazon, you need to deal with the muscle of the team. Fate, as the one with the most different types of power we need you to keep the shape-shifter busy. Blade, your job is to confront the regenerator your combat experience should help you out there. Fire, the plant manipulator is yours. Valkyrie you need to keep the speedster busy."

"Wouldn't Fire work better against the Speedster though?" Valkyrie questioned as she eyed the opponent that she had been designated.

"Neg that." The boy returned to her. "If that were to happen all he would have to do is create a tornado around her and suck all the oxygen away. While he could do the same to you. The chances of your surviving that sort of attack are much better than Fire as her flames would destroy oxygen as well."

"Understood." Valkyrie agreed.

"Just remember that you are a team and you have to fight like one if you want to beat this opponent." Andrew explained to them. "There is no other way that any of you are going to win unless you work as a team. Remember they were brought into being to counter you guys you have to be there for each other."

"We get the idea Andrew." Gryffindor said in annoyance. "No reason to start preaching to us or anything." The others nodded their heads in agreement dealing with the young man was difficult as he sometimes allowed himself to be carried overboard in his excitement.

"You have new armor." The Illyria noted as it observed the group. "It shall not help you though for you shall still fall before us." The Illyria said.

"We'll see about that." Fire said as she, Fate, Blade, Gryffindor and Valkyrie shot their weapons toward the Illyria. The blasts missed and struck the ground causing all sorts of rubble to explode outward. The Illyria were blinded from the combined assault stirring everything up.

With the cloud of dust blinding their opponents the heroes moved forward. Gryffindor and Amazon were the first to arrive as they tackled a pair of their enemies and shot towards the fortress slamming their opponents in first. Valkyrie came in from the behind the group and released her own burst of energy at the group. The Illyria were caught off guard as they were hit from two different directions

"So you have learned the value of uniting your abilities then?" One of the Illyria said as it observed the group with interest. "We shall see how skilled you have become as we destroy you." The members of the Illyria still standing moved forward to engage their enemies.

"Time to do the hero thing." Blade said as he moved forward to intercept the regenerator. He raised his gun and fired a couple of rounds into the being. "You and me, right here right now." He growled as he drew his sword out with his other hand.

Blade watched the figure pick itself up from the blast from the bullets and grin at him. "If that is the way that you want it halfbreed then that is what you shall get." Illyria informed him.

"We'll see," Blade returned, "who knows maybe if I cut that head of yours off you won't be able to get back up again." The two charged at each other ready to fight. This version of Illyria had changed slightly since the last fight. The damphir noted as he examined the fighting stance. This one didn't fear getting hit. It also had some type of claw like nails. Blade didn't doubt for one moment that getting hit with those would be painful.

Weapons flashed as they tried to connect with each other. Claws bounced off dragon hide and Kevlar while the sword made small slices into the skin of the other only for the hide to heal back over almost instantly. The two broke apart and watched each other this was going to be a long fight as they were equal in terms of speed and strength. It would come down to who tired out first and made a big enough mistake for the other to get in a good enough shot. He kicked Illyria hard and the gut knocking it back and opened fire catching it in the side and then moved in. The clawed hands caught the sword and they were right back where they had started.

* * *

Valkyrie turned to face the speedster that had paused when it saw that its opponent from last time was facing off against one of its brothers. "You and me Speedy." The armored woman said as she adjusted the shield on her arm.

"You think that you're a match for me muck? I shall peel all of that shiny armor off your hide and flay the skin from your hide." Illyria told her with a smile as it raised its hands and the heroine could see the claws that her opponent now had. "Yes, we have evolved some as our bodies have stabilized to our shells. We have been able to make slight enhancements to make us better able to fight the forces that rise up against us. Adjusting the way our armor surrounds us is but one of the things that we have done." Illyria informed the girl with a smile.

"Wow, there really are bad guys that brag all about their skills and abilities." Valkyrie said looking somewhat surprised and disturbed. "And here I thought that was only in books and movies that happened." The woman taunted as she readied herself.

Illyria hissed at her and rushed forward seeming to be only a blur to the eye. Moving as fast as she could Valkyrie brought her shield up and saw sparks raise out of the air as the claws trailed across it. She moved to take a swipe but the Old One was already out of her reach. She saw a small dirt cloud heading her way and she slammed her blade into the ground and created her fire circle. As the Old One came again it slammed uselessly into the shield of flames.

Snarling the Old One leaped away it arm now partially singed from the failed attack. "Clever little one, however that shall not be enough." It then began running in circles around the shield just as Andrew had warned created a small wind storm that was killing the flames.

Valkyrie watched as her flame shield began to die out. Not sure if her plan would work she shrugged as she whistled and her steed came flying into the battle. The Pegasus body slammed into the speedster and sent the Demon Lord flying. Valkyrie let out a sigh of relief as she ran toward where Illyria had fallen. The Demon Lord Managed to rise back to its feet and rushed her again. This time it slammed full force into the armored warrior and sent her flying. She tumbled several feet before she came to a stop. The two glared at each other angrily before coming at each other again. The speedster slamming its body into Valkyrie while the shield blocked most of the blows a few of them were damaging. Valyrie on the other hand was dodging and having her Pegasus help her out in keeping distance between the two as she swung her dragon fang blade.

* * *

Fate hovered in the air above the shape-shifter keeping his distance. The mystic had learned a lot from last time. He knew now what to expect and he would have to plan how best to counter its various attacks. While it could summon plants to try and wrap around him it would have to focus to make them grow as strong or fast to catch him as he was able to send blasts of magic to cut through the vines as if they were nothing. With no energy attacks of its own all it could do was try and mimic the combined abilities of the others and hope that it would be enough. The first thing it had to do though was bring Fate down to the ground where the rest of the fight was going on.

With a flick of its wrists it sent several vines toward the mage once again. A small pile appeared beneath the wizard as he sliced vine after vine away from him. Illyria used the pile as a spring board as he ran and leaped tackling the mage. The surprised magic user was brought to the ground hard. The two climbed to their feet and began trading blows with each other. Several blows had Fate backing up as he put some distance between them. The two eyed each other warily. The shape-shifter snarled as it shifted its arms into long tentacles that rushed forward and slammed the mage.

Fate was now on the defensive as he created shields that blocked the attacks. He fired a few energy beams back at Illyria but he easily dodged the bolts of energy by moving out of the way. Grinning Illyria pressed its attack on him and formed more tentacles to continue the attack. "You cannot win magic user." Illyria informed him with a laugh. "My strength and speed shall make me the winner of our battle." It told him as it sent a vicious roundhouse toward Fate.

The wizard grunted as the tentacle slammed right into his chest plate. 'It was good thing that he had the armor.' The wizard though as he rubbed his chest where he had been hit. Instead of breaking anything all he was going to have was a bruise. "I still have a few tricks." He growled out as he made a few gestures. Several images of the wizard appeared around the shape-shifter and they all hovered a few inches off the ground and began moving at high speed.

Illyria snarled and began throwing punches all over the place trying to connect with the real Fate all that happened was that the tentacles passed through the images while a blast of energy would happen every few moments knocking Illyria back. "You can't hide behind your illusions forever little mage." Illyria growled out as its arms continued flying around trying to connect with Fate and break the attack off.

"I don't know, this way seems to be working pretty well." Fate said as he appeared beside Illyria and brought his fist down on the side of Illyria's face. The attack connected and dazed the Demon Lord by the time it brought its tentacles down though the hero had already moved back into the formation of illusions.

The futile counter attacks stopped for a moment as the Demon Lord felt its head where a large gash from the hand had struck it. Illyria merely chuckled though as the wound healed over. "Nice try muck, but any damage that you throw at me I can heal over."

"Then perhaps I need to add more damage." Fate returned as he appeared behind Illyria and released a high powered mystic bolt that slammed Illyria across the battle field.

When the Old One climbed back to its feet the illusion could still be seen. "Enough!" Illyria cried out as the tentacles grew longer and began spinning in a fast circle and Fate was struck by the arms that were nothing but a blur. "I have you now." Illyria gloated as it came forward shooting several spikes toward the magic user. Fate raised a shield that stopped the attack but the two were now on a standoff as they tried to overpower each other. The vines wrapped around the shield and with thorns all tried to break through.

* * *

Fire dodged back and forth as she faced off against the plant manipulator part of Illyria. The Old One had learned how to launch the various spikes and thorns in the vines it used. Fire was doing her best to block the attacks. The only problem though was that a week's training with a staff though had only given her the basics and she was nowhere near ready to be blocking the attacks coming at her. She was mainly keeping them off of her by moving out of the way before they could hit or by sending a wave of flames out at her opponent's attack. It made her regret her powers somewhat as they made armor useless as it would either melt or disappear like her clothes did. Right now she would love to have some armor though. She thought as she dove below the line of fire and returned the favor by sending several fireballs back with her staff.

"We have already done this dance little elemental. You shall fall just as you did last time and there shall be nothing that you can do about it. All of your time spent training and preparing for this fight will have been in vain." Illyria informed her as she sent several vines to try and wrap around the girl.

Fire grunted as she wove in and out of the attacking vines. It was worse than trying to fight a devils snare plant or a Whomping Willow. With those at least once the vines were burned off that was the end of it. With these plants though, they kept on regrowing their lost limbs faster than she could burn them away. Those plants at least stayed dead when she killed them instead of continuously coming back to try and get her. The girl thought as she launched a few fireballs burning a couple of vines that were dangerously close to her. What she needed was a way to get close enough to hit the Old One without too much danger to herself. Unfortunately she had to keep her distance since all of them seemed to have at the very least the strength of Blade who was stronger and faster than most vampires were despite his ability to wander around when the sun was out.

She groaned as she felt small splinters hit her. Most of the wood was burned but enough was there to prick her body. Growling she fired several more flames at her opponent. "I am not going to go down without a fight." The hero informed the plant manipulator as she began firing more and more balls of fire.

Illyria kept bringing up shield made of plants to block the fiery assault. Nothing the girl did seem to make its way through the wall of plants. Laughing Illyria used the focus of the assault to send several vines to come in behind her the other elemental. "Fire move! You have an attack coming from behind." Andrew's voice came over the connection.

Fire rose higher in the air spun around and twirled her staff creating another flame vortex that drilled through the wave of vines coming from behind her.

"Your mine girl." Illyria said as she raised her arm and vines erupted from the arm and slammed into the back of the girl.

Fire crashed to the ground but was far from beaten as she climbed to her feet. She began going through the practice maneuvers she had been taught and brought her flames up to an even higher level. She watched as her flames kept the assault of vines off of her. "We need another plan this isn't working." Fire said as she twirled the staff in one hand while throwing a fireball from the other. "All we're doing is keeping each other at a standstill. All it takes is one mistake for us to lose against these things and we won't get another chance to try this."

"I'm looking for an opening." Andrew returned to her. "It's hard though since I'm watching everyone's fights. The fights are also moving so fast that it's hard to predict what's going to happen in these sorts of fights. Oracle never had it this difficult." He complained at her.

"Is anyone winning?" Fire questioned curiously ignoring the complaints.

"No, every one of you is about equal in terms of power and are in draws or being pushed back." Andrew returned to her. You are doing better than last time though since the psychic can't break through the defenses of the helmets. Last time you were all being tossed around at this point. So there is that. I still need to check on Amazon and Gryffindor though."

"Right just do what you need to." Fire returned as she began trying to push her way up and away from the plants that were trying to hold her down.

* * *

Amazon and Gryffindor stared at their opponents like last time the muscle and teleporter had teamed up. The two were slipping in and out of portals all around the two golden clad heroes who were waving their weapons around uselessly as the attacks were slamming them all over the fortress. The heroes were now standing back to back in case their opponents managed to slip behind them again. The battle had started out alright when the two heroes had slammed their enemies through the stone walls. Gryffindor had lost his grip on the teleporter though and the fight was now becoming a near reenactment of the previous fight. The only difference though was that the two heroes were taking the shots and not getting as badly hurt thanks to their reactions being at a better level and the extra weapons and armor.

"This is getting old fast." Amazon complained as she punched a piece of wall that had been tossed through a portal out of the way.

"Agreed," Gryffindor said as he swung the combined staff and sword of Gryffindor through another boulder. The enchanted blade easily sliced through the stone missile. He then brought the staff up into a guard position as a fist appeared out of a portal and slammed into the staff. There was a ring as the metal vibrated under the blow but the enchanted weapon didn't bend or dent despite the amount of power in the blow.

The two beings possessed by one of the Old Ones snarled at the heroes as they continued to rain their assault onto them. "So any ideas?" Amazon questioned her companion hopefully.

"Not really." Gryffindor returned to her. "They have us so busy blocking them though that we don't have a chance to try and hit back."

"Tell me something that I don't know." Amazon shot back at him in annoyance. "Go to my right." The pair dropped and rolled under a boulder and came up with their backs still to each other.

"Looks like Wesley knows his stuff when it comes to teamwork." Gryffindor said glad for all the training in dodging that the Watcher had forced them to do. The man may have been more devoted to training than Oliver Wood but it was showing through in how easily they managed to move as a team in dodging the blows aimed at both of them.

"Yeah I can't believe that he's finally become good at his work." Amazon returned to him. "It's a great surprise and I'm glad he's a real part of the fight now but it's hard to believe at the same time. Enough about my problems with Wes though. We need a new attack style to get past these guys." She said as she began looking around for something that would change the way that the fight was going. She leaned back and crossed her arms allowing a fist to slam into her bracers.

The fist withdrew and the Illyria with super strength flung a boulder at them with its other hand. Amazon reacted by slapping the boulder out of the way and back at the evil pair. A portal swallowed the boulder and it appeared coming at Gryffindor. The figure managed to hit it with the butt of his weapon shattering the boulder. Gryffindor looked up and grinned beneath his mask as he saw something. "Can you keep them busy for a moment? I have an idea."

"Sure, no problem, getting the big bad to focus on me is a specialty of mine." Amazon told him with a smirk before she refocused on the two beings fighting them. "Hey ugly one and two! I dare you to try and punch me again." She taunted the pair. "Unless you're getting to slow to use those things anymore of course." The two figures seemed to deem her words as a challenge and the strong one launched a heavy haymaker that disappeared into a portal. "Side step." The girl ordered as the two moved away from the forming portal. As the fist came through Amazon wrapped her own arms around the wrist and pulled dragging the Old One partially though. The girl then released him and brought both of her fists straight into the chest of Illyria sending it flying back through the portal and into its companion. The two landed in a heap after that blow.

"Perfect," Gryffindor said as he fired a blast of energy into the ceiling bringing it down on top of the two Illyria's. The collapsed ceiling buried the two creatures before they could finish climbing to their feet. The collapse was so sudden that the teleporter didn't seem to have a chance to get the pair out of the way before they were buried. That should slow them down. He told his companion.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Amazon questioned her teammate as they looked at the pile of rubble.

"Hopefully it will be long enough for you to get outside and help the others from losing their fights." Andrew's voice informed them. "The other are either in standoffs or close to losing their fights unless something changes the way the fight goes."

"Thanks Advisor, we're on our way." Gryffindor returned to the person doing his best to help them out. "What do you think?" He questioned her.

Amazon frowned not liking the idea of leaving an enemy at her back. Chiron and Giles had both taught her better than that. "Well, we already dropped a room on them and slowed them down. What would happen if we dropped an entire mountain on them?" She asked innocently as she looked upwards.

Gryffindor grinned and nodded as he aimed his staff upwards and fired some of his most powerful blasts upward and watched as the beams sliced through floor after floor. "I think its weak enough now." He told Amazon.

"Good, cause I think the dastardly duo are waking up." The blonde informed him pointing to the rubble that was moving around. The two flew through the holes that they had created and then shattered through the ceiling above them causing the floors they were flying through to collapse onto the pair beneath them. The two grinned as they watched the mountain fortress collapse on itself burying the two pieces of Illyria. They then headed toward the people they were worried about the most.

* * *

Fire growled as she continued to burn away at the vines. Illyria was learning as they fought though and was trying to wrap her in a tree again. Only this time the tree was giving her plenty of room to move. She didn't doubt that if it closed over her though that the oxygen would be very limited for her to use. Either it would all leave the tree or there would only be enough to breath. Either way she would lose the fight. The thickness of the vines and tree though was going to make burning through the prison hard. The fact that she was spending most of her time and power to knocking the vines that were trying to tie her down she knew she was on the verge of being swallowed unless she did something different against Illyria. As she prepared to let loose with another large flare of flame something happened. The only person that was always there for her when she needed help. Gryffindor nodded to his long time friend as he slammed a hole through the tree and fired several energy bolts all over the place slicing through the various defenses that Illyria had.

Fire grinned as she raised her heat to a level she hadn't dared since her powers first appeared and she glowed an even brighter green than she had before the various vines charred before they could touch her. Dropping her staff Fire gathered up her energy into a single ball of flame and released it toward the plant manipulating Illyria.

The blue and green being scoffed and raised a wall of plants to stop the attack. The flames at their normal levels would normally not burn through the barrier but with the help of her friend Fire managed to burn through the wall and knocked the Old One back.

The plant like beings entire body was singed as it backed away. "You shall suffer for that one muck." Illyria informed them as it gathered its power before thrusting its arm toward the elemental a giant vine erupting from their arm and heading straight toward Fire.

The elemental held her hand up and her staff rushed into her hand. A few spins and the fire tornado released from her staff and slammed into the incoming attack. The two attacks warred with each other before canceling each other out.

"That cost you much of your energy." Illyria noted as she watched the figure lean over and begin panting from using her flames like that.

Fire grunted back at her in defiance as she stood back up. "I've still got more than enough power for us to finish our fight." She said defiantly as she created several fireballs and launched them at Illyria. The Old One dodged and tried another wave of vines behind the elemental only for her to snap her staff behind her send a wave of flame back snapping the vines in half.

Fire launched several fireballs back in return, and grinned as they slammed into the face of her opponent. She saw that Gryffindor had come up behind her and was slicing through the various vines that were trying to slip past her defenses. 'They really had needed to work as a team. The two of them really were stronger together.' She thought to herself as she moved forward. Illyria clawed at its face as it tried to see. Fire grinned as she gathered her flames and then began flying as fast as she could in circles around the Old One. The flames encircling it cooked the plant based demon and when Fire finally stopped the creature fell down.

"How'd you do that?" Gryffindor questioned her curiously as he watched the various plants wither and die all around them as their master fell.

"Honestly, it controlled plants." The hero returned to her friend. "And plants need water to survive so I drew all of the water out of the air and ground making it starve itself. The fact that I cooked the ground made it even harder for it to pull nutrients for it to use is another reason why it collapsed."

Gryffindor shook his head and grinned at her. "Good job. Now let's see if any of the others need our help."

* * *

Blade was growling and letting the part of him that was still a monster show for all the world. He was no faster or stronger like a vampire would be if they were in game face but it did let him release his anger and annoyance easier this way. His sword was stuck in the ground where it had landed after being kicked out of his hands. The hero had switched to a pair of large knives that he was twirling around with as he fought against the dangerously sharp claws of Illyria. The two of them were right in each other's face but no matter what he did he couldn't break through the defenses of his opponent. He knew that there had to be something to do however he couldn't figure it out.

"Hey Little Boy Blue!" A voice that was very familiar to the damphir.

The two combatants spun away from each other to see who had interrupted their fight. "You." Illyria said as it saw the blonde in red, blue, and gold Grecian armor standing in a combat stance with a drawn sword.

"Yep me," Amazon returned as she gave a mock salute to the Old One. Her eyes flicked toward Blade. "So you ready to show this thing how we used to do things back home?"

Blade grinned in anticipation. "I'd love to."

The two moved into action. Amazon came in high while Blade threw his daggers toward the Old One. The demon dodged the flying steel and blocked the incoming sword. It pushed back and the blonde grinned at it as she jumped back her chest plate sparking as claws tried to cut into her stomach. The Greek Champion merely took a new stance and waited for Illyria to make the next move.

"If that was your best little one then you are doomed for failure." Illyria informed her as it regarded her carefully.

"Good thing it wasn't then." Blade said as he strode forward his sword now in his hand. "We merely wanted to prepare everything." He said as he got into his own ready position.

"You two think that you can beat us?" Illyria questioned them in disbelief. the hard looks the two Champion returned were all the answer that the Old One needed. "Very well try your best little ones." It said as it ushered them forward. The pair watched as the claws grew a couple of inches and then they charged each other. The Demon Lord was a whirl of claws as it slashed at the pair. The two heroes returned with as much as they could kicks and punches were traded back and forth.

The two heroes easily fell into their old combat routines ducks and slashes were exchanged. When one moved forward the other moved back as easily as if they had been spending the last year fighting alongside of each other instead of on other sides of the world. An attack to the head by one meant a leg sweep by the other. A stab from one blade was the block to the other. The two continued fighting this way forcing Illyria to move faster and faster as they attacked barely even aware of what else was going on. A kick to the back of one of its knees brought it down. But it forced it way back up. The pair pulled back and each launched a forward kick that slammed into the chest knock the creature back they heard the snap of ribs but by the time the demon was facing them again the damage was already healed over.

Amazon moved forward and trapped the arms for a moment and Blade appeared behind the creature. "Heal this." He growled as he slammed his katana through the demon's neck the body flailed around for a moment and the arms spasms caused the claws to dig into the arms of Amazon. The warrior cried out a bit but managed to keep calm for the most part.

"Took you long enough to beat the freaky demon Freddy Krueger wannabe." The blonde said as she yanked the claws out of her arms.

"Sorry, I had to come up with a good pun first." Blade returned with a grin.

"Ah, the jokes and puns are my department, remember?" Amazon reprimanded as she allowed him to help her up.

"Sorry." Blade said. "In my defense though, I've had to do most of the fighting and work on my own recently." The two grinned, but an explosion reminded them of the battle and they split to help the others that needed them.

* * *

Blade scrambled over and joined Valkyrie in her battle against the speed demon. The Pegasus was sporting several claw marks where the animal had taken several hits. Looking at the other Champion he noted several claw marks that adorned her shield and armor. The demon was obviously still a trick to fight despite the interference no longer being a problem.

"Blade I have an idea." Andrew's voice cried out to the dark figure. "Its basic fighting speedsters tactics 101. Batman uses it Captain America uses it so it should work for you.

"And what's this plan Andrew?" Blade questioned the young man impatiently.

"Shoot where it's going to be not where it's at, but where it's going to be. If you can predict it enough then you should be able to hit it." The young man supplied to Blade.

"Understood," Blade said as he drew his shotgun as he saw the speedster making another pass at Valkyrie and her steed. He shifted his aim from where it was running to where he thought that it would be and fired. He watched in surprise as the bullets actually connected and knocked the speeding Old One over for a second as it lost its balance before it began resuming its attack.

Valkyrie looked up in surprise. "What how?" The blonde woman questioned before her eyes trailed toward where Blade was standing.

"Aim for where it's going to be not where it's at." Blade explained to the warrior woman.

Valkyrie nodded turning and raising her shield as several fists rained down on her. She slammed her shield forward and watched as it slammed into Illyria. The shotgun shots had evidently slowed it down enough for her to get in a few hits now. "Let's do this." She said as she twirled her sword in the ready position.

The Speedster looked between the three potential targets before rushing at Blade at full speed. It seemingly danced around the shotgun and sword blasts directed at it and continued to rush at the demon hunter. As it got in close it began slamming its fists and claws into the lightly armored figure. Dragon hide and Kevlar was simply no match for the blows that were raining down on him. Blade raised his gun and watched as the weapon was slice into several smaller pieces as the claws descended on it. Dropping the weapon he went to punch the demon only to get several punches to the face and body himself before he was grabbed and spun several times at super speed and thrown to the side. Blade landed painfully on the ground and was struggling to climb to his feet.

Valkyrie planted her feet and the ground and watched as Illyria now made its way toward her. She raised her blade and fired only to watch as it evaded her energy blasts. Many of them were coming dangerously close to hitting it. Valkyrie snarled out a few curse words before she fired in front of where she thought that the demon was going to be and chuckled as she saw the demon fall to the ground this time. Not about to let something like this be in vain she fired again and this time blasted it full on in the chest. She rained a large number of blasts into it as she moved closer toward it. Blade merely watched as she forced the creature back and into the ground. She finally let up and the creature glared at her in defiance.

"You may have defeated this part of me, but there are others that will destroy you." Illyria told them arrogantly not about to admit defeat to the lesser beings just yet.

"Whatever." Valkyrie said as she slammed her foot into the head of her opponent knocking him out. She then turned to Blade. "Thanks for the assist."

"Thank Andrew," Blade returned as she helped him to his feet. "It was his idea on where to shoot. I just followed his suggestion." The girl nodded her head as they then turned to see if anyone else needed help.

* * *

Fire saw that Fate was being bound in all sorts of plants and the vines that were holding him just seemed to get thicker and thicker. She formed some fireballs and threw them at the vines. The fireballs slammed into the vines and the recoiled in surprise and snapped. Fire rained down several more shots and watched as more and more of the vines were burned away or jerked away. Changing tactics she began shooting a stream of fire instead of fireballs and the wall broke down even quicker. In a few moments Fate reappeared. Fire was so intent on freeing the mage she never saw the portal open behind her as the shape-shifter stepped through and slammed it's fist into her back sending her flying away.

"No!" Fate cried as he took off after the elemental. He caught her before she fell to the ground and then stared at Illyria angrily. "I shall make you pay for that one." The mage said as he began tracing various magical symbols in the air. "This should teach you a lesson." He said as he released a blast of magic through the symbols. The bolt seemed to be magnified as it passed through and struck Illyria. The shape-shifter roared in pain as the bolt of magical energy seemed to electrocute it. It paused in pain and Fate fired another bolt of energy at the creature. The Old One roared and tried to mover but merely fell to the ground in defeat.

"You can let me go now, I don't think that your wife would like it very much if she knew you were holding a woman even if it was to save her life." Fire said as she moved out of his grip. Fate nodded as he released the other hero.

* * *

The various heroes looked around as they made sure that none of their enemies were about to climb back up. For a moment there was an eerie silence. The crashing sound of heavy punches explosions and guns firing having been replaced by silence. None of them were sure if it was really safe or if it was the calm before the storm. It looked they had won though and Illyria was beaten. As they looked around the group became aware of the various demons and other creatures that were watching the result of their battles.

"Andrew, what are the chances that these guys are going to attack us?" Gryffindor questioned as they all took ready stances back to back in case they decided to continue where their masters had left off and try to finish the job for them.

"Unknown, it looks like they're waiting for something though." Andrew responded to the group. "Most likely they want to see if you can manage to beat the last member of the group as well though." He added cheerfully. "I imagine that they are most curious if you have the ability to take all of them down."

"Another one of them?" Valkyrie complained as she steadied herself on her feet.

"Yeah, the telepath is still out there remember?" Andrew supplied to them causing the group to grumble as they looked around for the last piece of Illyria.

"So, you know about me." A new figure said causing the group to look up to see one more person in the familiar blue leather outfit.

"Be careful, it appears that this one may also be telekinetic, which means that they can move things with their mind. That would be my guess on how flight is possible." Andrew cautioned the group. Power like that could mean a hit from an invisible fist as strong as the really strong one. Add in the mental abilities you're lucky we created the psychic jammers. You guys could literally be fighting a demonic Phoenix."

"Thanks for the warning." Fire said as she held her arm close to her side. None of them had escaped the various fights unscratched. Fire had a possibly dislocated shoulder and several broken ribs on either side from both the plants and the shape-shifter hitting her. Blade had several bruises and scratches as well and his helmet was close to falling apart after taking so many shots from the speedster and regenerator. The others were also sporting an assortment of bruises and scratches all over. The enhanced armor which had gleamed earlier was now dull and had several gouges in it.

"I think that we can handle one more of you." Valkyrie said cockily as she stared at the Old One. "I mean all those other fights were one on one. This will be six on one in our favor I think we can deal with you."

"Bad move." Andrew said. "If you think that they don't have the power to beat you then they probably do."

"That is doubtful Champion." Illyria returned to her emotionlessly. "While I may not possess the raw strength and infinite speeds of my brethren I still have my own powers. My mind shall be your downfall. Your helmets only protect you from assaults that are meant to control you. There are other methods of attack though that you may not be shielded in though. Besides there are other methods for me to use against you muck." Illyria raised its hands and the champions watched in disbelief as the various possessed beings began to climb to their feet. A portal opened and ejected the two buried within the mountain fortress.

"What is this, round three?" Gryffindor asked in disbelief as the figures arrayed themselves against the heroes.

"You might call it that, but now it is time for you to surrender." The telepath told them. "Your defiance has ceased to be amusing to us."

"Guys don't worry about the others, focus on the mental. That one is the only one you need to worry about." Andrew told them.

"Easy for you to say." Amazon grumbled as she eyed the group of Old Ones.

"Unless I miss my guess they're being controlled by the telepath." Andrew continued ignoring the sarcasm from the former slayer. "It's a classic telepathic defense of having someone else fight your battles for you. It's something that Exodus or the Shadow King would try. If you take the telepath out though you should stop all of them." He supplied to the group.

"Oh is that all we have to do?" Gryffindor said uneasily as he looked the others over. None of them were capable of another long drawn out fight and Andrew wanted the to beat their way through six high powered beings to deal with a seventh high powered being.

"Yes if we're lucky they should be a bit slower since it's not their usual mind controlling a lot of their other functions." Andrew said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure how that would work with a hive mind style link that these guys have though. It could mean they're slow and unstable or it could mean they act and fight normally I'm betting that they'll be slow though if for no other reason that there are six of them and the amount of control that would take would be enormous. If they could have done this earlier they would have as it would have allowed them to connect and counter attacks much sooner."

"Fine, first one to take the telepath down gets dibs on the showers." Amazon said as she got into the ready position. The others nodded as they wearily began preparing themselves for another fight. "Go!" The girl said as she and Valkyrie led the charge.

Fate reached his target first by appearing behind the plant manipulator. He cast an ice spell that seemed to slow the movements of the being down and then sent an ankh around the Illyria sending it elsewhere. The mage wobbled a bit and sagged a bit from the spell.

"Hey Fate, how many more of those do you have left in you?" Valkyrie questioned, as she kicked the regenerator in the gut knocking it away.

"One more," Fate said, "but if I do that then we have to walk home." The mage said as he cast a spell that fired lighting bolts at the teleporter.

"Good idea." Blade said as he brought his sword up and dueled with the speedster.

The Grecian and Aesir Champions jumped and slammed their blades into the sides of the regenerator. Their blades were left in the body and pinned it to the ground. As they prepared to put it out of the fight permanently, the powerful fists of the shape-shifter and muscle slammed into them sending the two out of the way. The two girls grinned as they held their shields out for all to see and threw the disc shaped weapons as hard as they could. The two weapons came in low bouncing off each other and fallen rock. The two heroines were moving already and ran and flipped over their opponents. As the creatures turned to face the girls the shields slammed into the back of their legs forcing them down to one knee. The girls swung and slammed their fists into their jaws knocking them back. They each held their hands out as the shields ricocheted off a pair of larger rocks and landed in their waiting hands.

"That was amazing a double Captain America double blind!" Andrew practically screamed into their ears. "You had them completely focused on the shields while you flipped over them, then while they're trying to recover from you flipping over them the shields hit them and then you kick them. It's a great maneuver."

The others chuckled as they assaulted the telepath now that the way had been cleared by the other four. Fire and Gryffindor released all of the power that they could into the hovering being who groaned as the telekinetic shield wavered under the combined assault. The groan got louder as Fate and Blade added their own fire into the attack while the two warrior women finished up with the various mind controlled versions of Illyria.

"No I cannot lose!" Illyria said pumping more power into the shield. The eyes of the possessed human began glowing in an unholy way as they tapped into more and more of their power.

"Sorry, but it's over." Amazon said as the roped powerhouse of Illyria was tossed at the telepath. While that was happening Valkyrie drew her sword and fired an energy bolt as well. The others increased their attack and watched as the force of the thrown muscle finally broke through the shield.

The group stood over the demon. Amazon held her golden lasso at the ready. "Here's hoping this does something." She said as she lassoed the creature around the head and released a full powered bolt into it. The others covered their eyes from the flash and then looked down as they saw the creature still struggling despite the amount of power that had been thrown into it.

"Our turn." Gryffindor said our swords are magical. He said nodding toward Valkyrie. The others nodded and back up and watched as the swords sliced downward and finally stopped the Old One.

The group of heroes turned to look at the other Old Ones that were grunting a bit as they woke up. The beings glared at each other then turned to look at their fallen comrade. "You have destroyed the unity of our minds." The regenerator said as it climbed to its feet yanking Amazon's sword out and tossing it to the side. "We should destroy you for that."

"Once we have decided on who shall lead." Another reminded its companion. "Remember, we no longer have unity and none of us can create unity."

"Then I shall lead." The regenerator growled as it turned to face the one that would question him.

"Do not do this brethren. None of us can fight as it is and we are weakened." Another Illyria said. "This battle is lost we must gather our forces and think a new attack."

"No we attack now. Send those fools that have watched like cowards while we have battled." Another one argued back.

Giles what's going on. Amazon questioned as they watched the group squabble amongst themselves.

"Well if I were to hazard a guess, I would say that without the telepath to guide them they are now a group of individuals." Giles voice returned over the communicator. "While they are all essentially the same being there must be enough differences in their experiences that slightly different personalities are appearing. The longer they are disconnected from each other though the more individuality that they have." The Watcher informed the group. "It's actually rather remarkable if you think about it."

"Yeah, that's nice thanks for the update." Amazon cut him off before he could drown out the interesting argument.

"No our hold is broken already our army breaks away." The speedster noted nodding toward the army that was moving away. The others looked angry but finally nodded. "You may have weakened us like the Knights you are but we shall return." Illyria promised them.

"You cowards, go your way I have an army to recruit." The regenerator growled as it stalked away.

"Careful brethren, or we'll see just how well you truly heal." The muscle growled. The two bared their claws at each other before stomping off in different direction.

The heroes turned to look and saw several magical government people watching them. "Figures," Gryffindor snorted in contempt as he reconnected his sword and staff so he could lean on the lengthened weapon. "The Ministry always was good for watching how the fight goes and taking all the credit while doing nothing." The hero sneered in disgust.

"At least they're arresting the ones that summoned Illyria even if they can't capture Illyria itself." Fire said trying to find a good side to what they were seeing as they watched several priests get arrested for what they had done. "Who knows maybe this time the ones that did this will stay in prison."

"We'll see." Gryffindor said sounding doubtful.

"Well that's a nice ending to this, think you can get us out of here?" Valkyrie questioned. Fate nodded and went through the motions and soon the glowing ankh was before them. "Besides, Gryffindor and I have got dibs on that shower." The girl said with a smirk and several evil eyes aimed at her as they disappeared. The wizards looked at where the group had disappeared in awe as they saw magic that they didn't know what was easily slip through the various wards that they had up to catch everyone involved in this mess. They would have liked to question them since they had been instrumental in destroying the hold that they had on the world. Without the demons lords to back them up they were no sort of priests that they had to worry about.

The group reappeared before the people of Sunnydale. The various members were helped to the ground so that they could be healed and then helped to the shower.

* * *

A couple days later the group were enjoying a party. Buffy and Angel had even agreed to have Whistler to join the party as they celebrated their victory. The girls had replaced their armor for summer dresses and the guys for slacks with t-shirts or button ups. Fire, Gryffindor and Fate still wore masks but they were also a part of the celebration that was going on. The girls were each giving a blushing Andrew a kiss on the cheeks in thanks for his services as the Advisor. As the group was celebrating the fire screen came on and the various gods that the group owed their allegiance to appeared before the group.

"Well done to you all." Odin congratulated the group. "You have served us and the world well in our time of need."

"That you have." Zeus said with a smile as he surveyed the group of Champions. "It is obvious we entrusted the right ones in helping the planet. You have met your first of a great many challenges." He told them. The group looked a bit depressed at the thought of more battles like the one that they had just finished. The battle with the Illyria had almost been to much for them to handle even as a group.

"There shall be more to come though, as the age of heroes returns to this plane though." The Morrigan noted to the assembled group confirming their fears and worries.

"You shall be our blade against the darkness that comes in bringing this world back to where it be though." Gaia assured the group.

"Yes," the Egyptian king of the Gods Ra said as he surveyed the group. "Our blade is mighty indeed."

"Indeed, for that is what they are." Andrew said as solemnly as he could from where he was sitting. "They are the first of the new Knights that will guard the world they are your Excalibur!"

"Excalibur, they are so named. For you are not the Justice League nor are you the Avengers you are our blade to send into battle." Roma said as she appeared with the group. "Many worlds have their own Excalibur and now so does this one."

"Once you are rested you must return to your own places though." Odin informed the group. "The deal that we made with the Powers that Be is that they are the guardians of the hellmouth. Their agent the Slayer is the one that must perform the duty as protector here. Do not go out and do battle here unless you are called on by the Powers."

The heroes nodded their heads in acceptance as they watched the various gods disappear. "Remarkable," Giles and Wesley said in awe at having seen the various gods.

"So Excalibur huh?" Buffy said with a smile as she looked at the others with a grin. "I think I can live with a name like that. How about the rest of you?" She questioned as she looked around the room at the other people that were gathered around the room.

"I'm in." Gryffindor said. "I'd rather work together next time something like the Illyria comes up than take it on myself anyways." He assured them all.

"You do mean 'ourselves' right?" Fire said from behind her mask as she glared at her friend.

"Of course I wouldn't dream of leaving you out of it." Gryffindor assured her as he gave her a quick hug. Several people made whipped and hisses sounds at him. The hero ignored this though as he focused on the girl he had wrapped in his arms.

"One of these days I'm going to figure you two out." Katie promised them with a friendly glare. "The best way to do that is to join the group though. So I guess I'm in."

"Angel, if you don't join I'll drag your ass to the meetings." Buffy threatened the former vampire in a serious tone that left no one with any doubt that she would do it if he forced her to.

"I'll do it." Angel agreed coolly before going back to the book he had been reading. His eyes only partially on the pages, the other was watching the blonde Champion move around the room.

"Fate, how about you?" Fire questioned the mage.

Fate nodded his head. "It will help to keep the world in balance if I work with you." The mage explained to her. "For the good of the world I shall join you on this mission that you have found yourselves with."

"What about you Advisor? We're going to need a good tactician to keep track of the fight." Gryffindor offered to the young man.

Andrew merely smiled at this and nodded happily unable to talk as he now had something that he had always wanted. He was a hero now and no one or thing could ever take that away from him. The other heroes smiled at the excitable young man. They owed their lives to the young man as he had known more about how to use their powers than they did. The fact he knew superhero combat strategies as well made him all the more useful. For all they knew had he not been the one in charge of communications then they could all have very well lost as he had provided them with important information when they needed it.

"That's great." Xander said as he observed the group. "Now let's get this party going!" He declared as he turned the music up some more, while George brought in several more drinks.

Joyce and Giles sighed before leaning back into their chairs and watched their children. They were not their children by blood but they were theirs. Buffy and Angel their lost ones had returned to them stronger than before. Wesley, and Cordellia, the children who had left the nest, but returned as new and better people. Faith, the prodigal rebellious wild child was now with them once again. Tara, Willow, and Xander the loyal children who had stayed. Finally there were the new ones. Katie, Gryffindor, Fire, and Fate they were all a part of their family even if they didn't want to believe it. The only sadness was for those no longer with them. Riley, Graham, and Spike were gone forever and then there was the missing Oz. Tonight the group would be here though. Tomorrow though, they would go to protecting their various parts of the world. Their time of training for their duties was now over. It was now time for them to begin the tasks they had been given. They were the Champions of the World, and it was their duty to do their very best to protect it.

* * *

(And thus begins the adventures of Excalibur! Tune in next time for when other fighters take on the roles of Empowered Heroes and their blessed helpers. I think it will be an enjoyable round with the heroes I have planned next. Unknown TTH Time, but Same TTH Channel. Any guesses on which heroes super and otherwise I'll use? Remember, the Super has to be a magical superhero. Who thinks that they can guess right on how my muse works?

!


	10. Sequel

There's now a sequel located in the Supernatural section.

Title **Excalibur: Soulfire**

storyid=8363649


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